Battle to End All Battles
by ExArchmagus
Summary: This is a rewrite of the final battle of Gundam Seed: Destiny. In it I attempt to rewrite the battle in a way that will treat Shinn Asuka, the series protagonist, the way he deserved to be treated while at the same time making Kira less of an invincible wooden stick.
1. Warnings from the Author

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam SEED/Gundam Seed Destiny

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Okay let's set some information straight right here right now. This story has three chapters however only one of them contains the actual final battle rewrite.  
First chapter is a word from the author.  
Rest are the actual rewrite.

So anyway...

* * *

Word from the Author:

As you all should be well aware, the GSD final battle was nothing more than a steaming piece of crap. No, seriously. It was HORRIBLE! And even though I am currently rewriting GSD right now ( s/8327145/1/Gundam-Seed-Humanitys-Fate), I have always felt the need to address this final battle. In case you actually were happy with the GSD final battle (how...) then I am going to quote and tell you why I think the final battle of GSD sucked.

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Review by Chris Guanche October 3, 2005

I don't even know where to really start here. Without a doubt, this is perhaps the most disappointing ending I've ever seen to an anime series. And given the way this just ends, I wonder if the term "ending" is even fitting. Let's start with the most obvious here. Much of this episode is an exact repeat of SEED's ending- Kira and Athrun smash stuff with their METEORs, Kira fights Rau/Rey, and ZAFT superweapons (Requiem and Neo GENESIS) are destroyed. Shinn, who was reduced to nothing more than a barking dog, was beaten quickly by Athrun. Other characters behave in strange ways.

Talia, always the professional captain, displays some strange emotions. What's the point of dying with Durandal, especially when she has a young son? It seems quite selfish of her to abandon her son like that. Also, why did Rey suddenly decide to shoot Durandal? He always put in an effort to make sure Shinn didn't listen to Athrun's nonsense, but then he himself fell victim to Kira's own Gundam protagonist babbling.

When I watched the first episode, I had the idea that Shinn was supposed to be the hero of this series. And he was- at least until Kira came back into the spotlight and stole the series from him. The series was fast-paced and action-packed at first, but that momentum was quickly lost and the story degenerated into what we have now. Shinn, as a protagonist, went nowhere. He started off as an angry guy traumatized by the death of his family. After episode 35, he pretty much became Durandal's dog to help fulfill his plans without thinking for himself. Because of this, Shinn alternately fills the role of hero/villain as the story requires, depending on Kira's presence. In episode 38, Shinn was the good guy during the battle at Heavens Base. At the Orb battle soon after that, he comes across as a villain when he's fighting against Kira and Athrun. During the battle to stop Requiem in 45, Shinn is once again the good guy. In this episode, he's the bad guy again, and on top of that, he loses all his piloting skills.

He's so blinded by meaningless hatred that he even nearly attacks Lunamaria just because he hates Athrun. It's all a shame, because at the beginning, Shinn and Athrun had a pretty good relationship with a mentor-apprentice vibe. That, of course, is long since past. Many people call DESTINY the Zeta Gundam of the CE universe, and they do indeed have some similarities. However, DESTINY didn't emulate one of the most important aspects of Zeta- character balance. In Zeta, Amuro and Char played important roles, but there was never any doubt that Kamille was the star. Here, Shinn is constantly competing for screentime with Athrun and Kira. What's worse is that all the time spent on Athrun and Kira is a waste. For all of Athrun's moping and confusion, he ends up being exactly the same as he was at the end of SEED. Kira doesn't even change at all during the series, because he has no struggle. I don't think things were supposed to develop this way, but it looks like Fukuda and Morosawa decided to change gears in the middle of the story.

Even with the focus on the old SEED cast, guys like Yzak and Dearka are just cast to the side. And Neo/Mu just gets a one second flashback of Djibril standing over him to explain what happened. Fukuda has been nicknamed "Flashback 'Em All" due to his penchant for clip shows and flashbacks. Just as in SEED, the constant clip shows in DESTINY always came at the wrong time and killed the pacing of the story. This resulted in an extremely rushed and subpar final battle and ending. It really is a shame, because the CE universe has lots of potential that is wasted due to Fukuda and Morosawa's mismanagement. This is a perfect example of how not to do a Gundam series, and I sincerely hope that neither of them ever works in another Gundam production. I doubt we'd be so lucky, but one can hope.

* * *

I will say right now he was generous. The cannon ending deserved 1 stars out of 5 (cause although GSD is full of stock footage, the soundtrack for battles was good), if anything. He gave it 2/5.

With that in mind, I will warn you right now. If you are a fan of GSD who hates Shinn (and thinks that he will never be as good as Kira or Athrun), thinks that Athrun Zala is the greatest thing since sliced bread (I'll give you a hint, if you're an AxC fan, this probably applies to you), or that Kira wasn't a one-dimensional beamspamming piece of cardboard who obeyed Lacus in the series like a mindless robot, or even if Lacus deserved the power and influence she had in the series, click the backspace symbol in the top left of your screen **right now.** **This. Is. Not. For. You.** **Period.** And you probably won't like it either. There will be character death, and you have been warned. Those who know of my personal bias for certain characters can already guess who dies and who lives. Those are reading my work for the first time, or have just read Thoughts of the Princess may not be as informed and will have to read to find out. I intend to give the true protagonist of GSD the ending he deserved, **and I also intend to write fights where the victor is decided by skill, not plot armor.** Unfortunetely GSD was already damaged beyond most forms of repair by this time but I'll do my best. To some this will be an improvement, and to others they will think of it as worse than the canon ending... I don't care I'm the author!

Anyway, for those of you who actually intend to read this, I've got some tiny changes/information that you should know.

First of all: Mwu is considered dead. Neo is not him. The Shiranui Akatsuki will be piloted by it's true master: Princess Cagalli Yula Attha. (I'm sure trulyanimelover06 has a smile on her face right now)

Second of all: My final battle starts at around the end of phase 48 and ends at the end of phase 50. That should give you some timeline sense.

Third of all: I intend to play the order of events in a different way. In phase 49 we didn't see Shinn or Rey fight, they talked nonsense with Durandal. Rey and Shinn will come in at around the middle of Phase 49.

Last of all: Cagalli is not rambo. Yes she will fight in the Akatsuki, but (spoilers) she will go up against Shinn 1v1 again and nearly be killed (but it won't be the pitiful fight they had in ORB, she will give Shinn trouble). Yes I am a fan of her, however she's not an ace and nor can she defeat Shinn as far as i'm concerned. This may make her seem weak, but at the same time, the alternative of her beating him would be awful.

So... with all of that out of the way, we now go onto the actual final battle rewrite. Please leave a review if you would kind but no flames please.


	2. End of 48

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam SEED/Gundam Seed Destiny

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Rey Za Burrel had just told his fellow pilot, Shinn Asuka, the truth about him being a clone. Chairman Gilbert Durandal had just ordered the Requiem superweapon fired on the Alliance Lunar Base Arzachel, annihilating the city in it's entirety. The people aboard the legendary battleship Archangel were now meeting to discuss this matter.

"Miss Murrue!" Kira Yamato said as he, and his lifelong friend, Athrun Zala, entered the bridge, horrified at what they had just seen happen.

"Kira..." Murrue turned to the young adult.

"The... The Requiem!" Athrun Zala said.

"But... he said he would dismantle it!" Lacus Clyne protested.

"Lacus, you're talking about a man who made a fake copy of you and used her to brainwash the world into believing him, saying that Meer was the real Lacus. He lied there. He lied here. It's not surprising." Cagalli Yula Attha, the Chief Represenative of the ORB Union said as she looked onto the screen.

"We're in a predicament. Most of the Alliance's power to resist Chairman Durandal and his 'Destiny Plan' was wiped out with that last shot." Murrue warned.

"That weapon... is a monster. Depending on where the relay points are, they can fire anywhere they want, at any time they want, unless it's being recharged." Athrun Zala said.

"So... no one, is safe?" Kira asked as he tilted his head down. Lacus Clyne turned to face the Archangel's Captain.

"Contact the Eternal and have them link up with us as soon as possible." The pink haired popstar said.

"Inform the ORB fleet to gather around the Archangel. We are going to go and fight against Zaft. As Kira, said, no one is safe. We either fight, or submit. And I would rather die than have to live in Durandal's world." Cagalli ordered.

"Yes. We will do so." Murrue said as she turned to her crew and gave them a nod, telling them to do as ordered.

* * *

Zaft mobile assault space station Messiah:

"Contact all of our forces. Have them prepare for battle. After that last shot it's unlikely that certain group will accept our new and better world. They will come, and we will defeat them, and in doing so, we shall end war." PLANT Supreme Council Chairman, Gilbert Durandal ordered one of his subordinates as he sat in his chair in Messiah's control room.

"Yes sir. Right away sir." The man who Durandal was ordering said. The Chairman of Zaft leaned back in his chair and put his hands together, thinking.

'And now... the fate of the world, of humanity, will be decided. Will those who wish for a world without war, without conflict, without tragedy win? Or will those who constantly persist that we stay in the endless cycle of the past prove victorius and plunge our race into darkness? Now, that question will be answered, once and for all.' Durandal thought.

"There is no place to run. No where to hide." Kira said.

"It's sad. The reality is you either kill or be killed now." Cagalli added.

"I guess we just have to accept it then." Lacus lowered her head as she said that.

"Well there's no point crying over it, is there? We've made our choice, and they've made theres." Said Athrun Zala.

* * *

Onboard the Minerva:

Shinn Asuka and Lunamaria Hawke were walking down a hallway, talking.

"Sure, you're both FAITH members so I guess I do need to accept this and just take it, but... I didn't expect to be treated like that, Shinn." Lunamaria complained about something that happened earlier between her and Shinn.

"Yea, I'm really sorry. We were talking about the Chairman's speach and the Destiny Plan." Shinn replied.

"But that's what I wanted to talk about too!" Lunamaria said as a nearby door opened, Vino, one of the Minerva's mechanics running to them,

"Shinn!" The young red/brown haired boy said as he closed in on the Minerva's Ace. "Arzachel has been destroyed! It was that Requiem cannon!" He informed.

"What?" Shinn's jaw dropped as he heard this.

"Under whose orders?" Luna asked. Suddenly both red suits turned around as a fourth voice was heard.

"There was hostile activity detected in the area. I understand that's why they were fired upon." Rey Za Burrel said as he came up behind them.

"Activity?" Vino said.

"Our... forces...?" Luna tried to ask.

"It's like I said Shinn, it's the right then to do, but it's not going to be easy." Rey said as Shinn gasped a little. "The ends justify the means... but you know who will be coming after us... don't you?" Rey asked.

"Them..." Shinn clenched his fists.

"Yes, the Archangel." Rey said.

"They've interferred... for the last time! THE LAST TIME!" Shinn raged.

* * *

In a large hanger under the moon the great white vessel prepared to launch.

"Engines operating and stable. The conduits and the FCS are online. Power flow is stable. Magnetic field chamber and pellet dispenser are online and functioning. External impact dampener: Holding at twenty percent output. Main power contact. Archangel: All systems ready. Preparations for launch are complete." Neumann informed his Captain.

"Archangel, taking off!" Murrue ordered as the ship left the hanger bay, the rest of the ORB fleet gathering around it. Suddenly, something appeared on the radar.

"Ma'am. Detecting several Zaft and Earth Alliance ships heading for us. They're attempted to contact us." Mirallia said.

"What? Have they powered weapons?" Murrue asked.

"Negative."

"Put them through." Murrue ordered. Several of the Archangel's screens were filled with the faces of Captains of the battleships, both from the Alliance and Zaft.

"Captain Murrue Ramius of the Archangel. We are like you right now. We reject the Destiny Plan and we wish to fight alongside the Legendary Archangel and the ORB fleet as you take the fight to that bastard Durandal himself. Will you allow us to do so?" One of them asked.

"Yes. I thank you for your aid. We need all the help we can get. Your assistance is appreciated. Now, as you said, let's take the fight to Zaft! Maximum thrust! Course: Five zero!" The Archangel's Captain ordered as the fleet moved away from the lunar city they were at.

* * *

"We are going to destroy that ship this time, and all who follow it, once and for all!" Rey said to Shinn. "I promise you this right now."

"Rey..." Shinn said.

"This is the world you wanted Shinn. That was the world which ended your loved ones. Don't let them bring us back to that world! Let us defend our new one!" Rey said.

"Yes... let us defend our new world. And let anyone who opposes us feel our wrath!" Shinn clenched his fists.


	3. P49: Those who stand in Destiny's Way

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam SEED/Gundam Seed Destiny

* * *

Start of Phase 49: Those Who Oppose Destiny

The episode opens up showing the Archangel and Eternal heading around the moon. The camera shifts to the interior of the Eternal's hanger bay.

"This first relay station is the key. We have to take it out first. Otherwise they'll be able to fire at anyone, anytime." Athrun informed as he pressed buttons on the Infinite Justice.

"I agree. This is a critical point." Kira said as he did the same with the Strike Freedom. Off in the distance you can see Zaft forces gathering around station one. At the same time another, larger Zaft fleet is defending the Requiem itself, and some ships can be seen near Messiah as it approaches the Moon.

"So the faster ORB vessels, as well as the Archangel and Eternal are going to attack the first station, while the Alliance and Zaft ships will head and assault Requiem directly?" Cagalli asked, her body already in it's flight suit. "And we know that Zaft's Lunar Fleet is somewhere nearby..."

"Yes, it's not like we have a choice, Lady Cagalli. No matter what happens, we have to come out victorious." Murrue said.

"We will not lose this battle. At the same time we need to be quick. If we're not... we will lose it all." Cagalli said.

"We must destroy their relay station before the reinforcements can surround us." Lacus said.

* * *

"Mister Chairman, the Archangel and Eternal are approaching station one." A man on Messiah's bridge informed the Chairman.

"There are also forces headed for Daelalus sir, a fleet consisting of Alliance and defected Zaft vessels." Another man said. Durandal hummed for a moment as he thought of his next actions.

"I understand. Tell our forces at station one to hold them off as long as possible. The Minerva, the Gondwana, and the rest of our forces are to focus around Requiem and defend it. They are to be divided in half. One half is to hold off incoming vessels from a distance, and the other is to defend the Requiem directly." Durandal ordered. 'They won' try to take out station two, it's too far away. However, if we hold them off for long enough for the Minerva to take care of the forces at Requiem... then it's checkmate.' Durandal thought.

* * *

"Upgrade to condition red! All defensive forces are to launch immediately!" A Zaft officer in a white coat aboard a Nazca-class vessel ordered as the forces defending Station One redied themselves for battle.

* * *

"Lacus, I'm going to head out now." Kira announced.

"Good luck." Lacus replied.

"Athrun." Kira turned to his friend.

"Yeah, let's go." Athrun responded. The Eternal's catapult turned on and opened up, extending its launcher to maximum.

"Activating Meteors." Andrew Waltfeld announced as the two Meteors on the Eternal activated. "All hands, level one battle stations!"

"We'll move ahead of the Eternal." Murrue ordered as the Archangel increased its speed. "Activate Gottfrieds and Valiants. Load all missile tubes with Corinthos. Prepare to launch all mobile suits!" Murrue said as the Archangel activated all of its weapons. The camera now shows a comm link between the Akatsuki and Strike Freedom.

"You good with this Cagalli? Are you sure you can..." Kira asked as his stubborn sister interrupted him,

"Yes, Kira. I'm okay. I know how to use these damn things. Just like how you told me!" She replied.

"Okay then. I'll be busy trying to take out the station. I suggest you not drift far from the Archangel." Kira ordered.

"Pfft. Fine then." Cagalli responded as the Strike Freedom was loaded onto the mobile suit catapult.

"Kira Yamato, Freedom, let's do it!" He said as the Strike Freedom launched from the Eternal, the Infinite Justice coming next.

"Athrun Zala, Justice, launching!" The bluenette announced as he also launched, followed shortly by the three DOM Troopers.

"Cagalli Yula Attha, Akatsuki, launching!" The Akatsuki launched from the Archangel.

"Meteors lift off." Andrew Waltfeld ordered.

"I want to broadcast on an open channel." Lacus requested.

"Yes ma'am." A bridge crew member of the Eternal said as she pressed some buttons. Soon, Lacus could be heard not only by the ORB forces, but by the Zaft forces defending the Requiem.

"This is Lacus Clyne speaking from the Eternal. To all Zaft soldiers defending the relay station: We are about to begin the annihation of this useless weapon of mass destruction. That thing serves no real purpose. It cannot be used to protect anyone, or even to fight battles. If you happen to take pride in the uniform you were, you will let us through. All around the Zaft forces you could see the soldiers looking pissed off at what she said. Suddenly, the channel was filled with the sound of angry Zaft pilots.

* * *

"You arrogant little girl!"

"How dare you even attempt to tell us what to do!"

"Who are you to tell us what we need to do to take pride in our uniforms?"

"Useless weapon of mass destruction? I beg to differ."

"Screw you. You just want to stick things in the past, don't you?" All of those lines could be made out from the soldiers at Station One as the ORB forces descended on it, then, a man who seemed to be the supreme authority over the defending forces spoke.

"Alright that's enough. These people are logos sympathizers! Take them out! Shoot them down! For the sake of Zaft! That's an order!" He yelled as the mobile suits defending the station began to move towards the ORB forces.

* * *

'Lacus... what did you do.' Cagalli thought from the cockpit of the Shiranui Akatsuki as she headed out behind Kira and Athrun, preparing to fire her beam rifle, the Zaft ships beginning to open fire on the fleet.

"Gottfrieds, Valiants, fire!" Murrue ordered as the Archangel began to open fire with its main weapons on the Zaft forces, the Eternal firing its main gun, and the ORB Izumo-class ships opening fire with their own Gottfrieds. Missiles headed for the ships, and their CIWS did the best to shoot them down. The Strike Freedom and Infinite Justice each target a large amount of units and opened fire with a full burst from their meteor, annihilating a large amount of mobile suits.

"Gah... here goes nothing!" Cagalli said as the Shiranui Akatsuki deployed it's seven DRAGOONs and began to shoot at Zaft mobile suits, taking out several of them before blocking the Archangel from taking fire from a Nazca-class ship, breaking she shield a split second later so the Archangel could fire it's Gottfrieds into the distance. 'Hey, I'm kind of good at this...' She thought as she noticed something on her radar. "Oh yeah, take this!" She yelled as a Gunner Zaku fired it's beam cannon at her, only to have it be deflected back at it.

"Cagalli, are you alright?" Athrun asked as the Infinite Justice swung it's large Meteor sword at a Zaku, taking it and several other suits out.

"Ready as I'll ever be." She replied as she fired her beam rifle.

* * *

Minerva bridge:

"Message from Fleet Headquarters, ma'am." The person who had replaced Meyrin informed her Captain.

"Hmm? What is it?"

"Station One has come under attack from the Archangel, the Eternal, and several other ORB vessels. We've been ordered to take part in the fortifications of the Requiem while they buy us some time." The officer informed.

"I see. Understood."

"The... the Archangel?" Arthur Trine asked.

"Arthur, did you honestly expect them not to come out and interfere as they have before?" Talia turned and asked her Executive Officer, who looked a little stunned.

"Uh... no ma'am." Arthur responded.

"I didn't think so. It won't be long before Station One falls. Inform Shinn, Rey, and Luna that we will head into battle soon. Once their done here they'll head for us." Talia ordered as the communications officer announced something else.

"Oh, and we've also received reports of a fleet of defected Alliance and Zaft vessels headed for the Requiem. We've been ordered to stop them."

"I see. Arthur, bring the ship to condition red." Talia ordered.

* * *

Minerva pilot lounge:

The ships three pilots each had their pilots uniforms on and were preparing to launch when they needed to.

"We're not going to launch yet, you know." Rey said, the other two pilots looking at him.

"What?" Luna asked.

"Why not?" Shinn also asked.

"Because we need to save our strength. The real threat will be coming for us soon, and we need to be prepared to take them out." Rey said. Shinn was clearly a little sad about this. "Shinn, what's wrong?" Rey asked.

"It's just... I thought I killed both of those bastards already, and now look at them. They're alive and well, and coming for us. I don't know... how I can beat them." Shinn said. Rey looked at him before turning to Luna.

"Lunamaria, standby in the Core Splendor. I need to have a personal chat with Shinn." He ordered. The Elder Hawke sister pouted before heading towards the elevator.

"Shinn, listen to me. You are a better pilot than both Athrun and the pilot of the Freedom, Kira Yamato." Rey said.

"But... what happened at ORB... when I fought Athrun." Shinn said. Images of the ORB forces engaging battering their way through the Zaft defensive lines could be seen. Beamspam, Gottfried fire, missiles everywhere from directions. It was a fierce battle but it was clear who was winning, and it wasn't Zaft.

"You didn't let me finish, Shinn. When you are calm and focused, you are unstoppable. I have fought with you this entire war, and I have observed something. When you are focused, you do not lose. You light the sky with your fury and break your way through all who stand in your wake. You are a weapon without equal. However, when you lose focus, and become consumed by rage, like when you fought this... new Freedom for the first time, or Athrun, you lose. You lose yourself, and you nearly lost your life." Rey informed. Shinn looked a little shocked at this.

"So what you're saying is..." Shinn tried to say.

"Stay calm. Remain cool. Remember what I said at ORB. They want you to lose control of yourself; because that's the only way they can hope to beat you. This is the truth. Accept yourself for who you are: The greatest pilot of this time." Rey said.

"Rey... I wouldn't go that far..." Shinn said.

"I would. As someone who has fought beside you all this time, I would. Now... as much as you are a good pilot, I am a good tactician. Remember I told you how to beat the Freedom." Rey said.

"I remember that perfectly well, actually." Shinn said.

"Now, I intend to take on the Freedom myself with the Legend, and you are to take on the Justice. However, should I fail, as Rau Le Creuset has failed before me, then the task will be in your hands..." Rey said.

"Don't say that! You are not going to die!" Shinn yelled.

"I will one day... regardless of how. I will do my best but before I do I must warn you of what I think this new Freedom is capable of doing." Rey said.

* * *

"Ten to port, Corinthos, fire!" Murrue ordered as the Archangel evaded and shot down incoming fire while unleashing it's own weapons on the enemies. The Strike Freedom had unleashed another full burst on the enemy as Kira closed in and sealed the deal on a Nazca-class ship with his massive beam swords, the Justice following it, and the Akatsuki in the rear providing it's shield and reflective capabilities to aid in the battle.

* * *

"We haven't seen that mobile suit use its wings yet, but from what reports are saying they are just like the DRAGOONs on my Legend." Rey said.

"You mean deployable devices that race around and take out slow enemies?" Shinn said.

"Yes. Now... these will present a problem to you fighting them for the first time. However I need to tell you how to beat them." Rey said.

"I'm all ears..." Shinn said.

* * *

"We've almost broken through! Just a little longer!" Andrew Waltfeld shouted from the Eternal as the ship fired its main guns as well as a barrage of missiles into the enemy lines. The DOM Troopers were seen flying around the Eternal, keeping it safe. The Archangel approached Station One, the rest of the ORB ships along with it.

The Zaft forces at Requiem had engaged the rebel forces some distance away from the super weapon itself. The Minerva, as well as the Gondwana and several other ships had stayed on guard near the Requiem itself, and were being told to intercept the ORB forces after they defeated the Zaft forces at station one and made their way towards the Moon's surface.

* * *

"Speed, and ranged weaponry, Shinn. That's what you need." Rey informed his friend.

"What do you mean, Rey?" Shinn asked.

"If you fight the Freedom you have to realize that it will come after you fast and try to take you out with its DRAGOONs. Use the Destiny's Wings of Light to avoid them, and used your ranged capabilities to take them out. It'll be a hard battle should you fight him, and I'm counting on you, Shinn." Rey informed. 'As much as I want to kill Kira Yamato myself... if Rau failed... I don't see myself winning...' He shook his head as he thought.

"I understand Rey." Shinn said.

"Good. Understand that you can beat those two. Now, let's get ready. Something tells me that Station One won't stand for much longer, and when it falls, we shall be the ones fighting." Rey said as the two of them walked towards the elevator that would lead them to the flight deck. 'Well... calm as in he's not screaming dammit all the time and being wildly out of control.' Rey thought.

* * *

"It's looks like we've cleared enough of a path." Athrun Zala said as the Infinite Justice used it's Meteor to finish off a Nazca-class with missiles.

"Miss Murrue, are you ready?" Kira asked.

"Yes, we're ready. Open a com line to all of our ships." Murrue ordered from the Archangel's bridge. One the line was established she began to give an order to the fleet. "All vessels capable of firing positron cannon are to do so at once. Target this location on the station. Fire on my command." Murrre ordered as every ship in the ORB fleet received information telling them where to target Station One. "Ready Lohengrins. Target the relay station ahead of us." The doors on the front of the Archangel opened, as well as the doors on the sides of each Izumo-class ship that held their positron cannon.

"The fleet's responded Captain. They're ready to shoot." Dalida reported.

"Right then. Give the fleet orders to fire their main guns. Lohengrin, fire!" Murrue ordered as the Archangel and all the ORB ships fired their anti-matter beams at Station One, hitting the relay point at several points in a line. As a result of this, the giant cylinder broke open and was inoperative.

"We've done it!" Lacus cheered.

"It's not over yet, Lacus. We still need to deal with Requiem itself." Cagalli said as the Shiranui Akatsuki flew near the Archangel.

"How's the other fleet doing right now?" Andrew Waltfeld asked. Meyrin Hawke, who was sitting at the Eternal's communications station, gave him a replay.

"They're holding steady above the weapon itself at a high altitude. From what they say Requiem won't be able to fire as long as they're blocking it's mouth." Meyrin reported.

"Good, then we've got time. Athrun." Kira turned to his friend.

"Ya, let's go. Time to finish this." Athrun said as the two gundams detached from their Meteors as the devices went back to the Eternal.

"Set course for Requiem. Maximum thrust!" Murrue ordered as the Archangel, Eternal, and the rest of the ORB forces changed direction and headed for the Moon's surface.

* * *

"Station One has been destroyed." An officer onboard Messiah informed the Chairman, who was still sitting back in his chair.

'It wasn't needed. If anything we'll have enough time to fire Requiem at ORB using Station Two. Speed is the greatest factor...' Durandal thought.

"Uh... Mister Chairman?"

"Oh, right then. How is Station Two doing? What's the status of Requiem's line of fire?" Durandal asked.

"Station Two is still a little ways away from firing."

"The rebels have blocked Requiem's line of fire! Output will be reduced if we fire now." A purple uniform said. Durandal clenched his fists.

"Right then. When Messiah is in firing range I want you to clear the cannon's mouth. Once that and Station Two has been aligned, we'll annihilate ORB and bring this battle to an end." Durandal ordered.

"Yes sir!"

* * *

Nazca-class battleship Rousseau:

"Damn them! They've already destroyed Station One!" Yzak raged from his bridge. The fleet that his ship, as well as the Minerva and Gondwana were in were now able to see a visual of the ORB fleet heading for them.

"And now we know why they didn't contact us. I mean... we are part of Zaft." Dearka informed. Yzak just looked like he was going to blow his top off.

"Get out there in your machine, now. I'm heading out too!" Yzak ordered. The black suit who was sitting in the Captain's Chair turned.

"Umm... Commander?" He asked.

"Just have the Voltaire cover us from behind, got that? You'll be killed if you go up front!" Yzak ordered as the elevator door shut.

"Uh... yes sir..."

* * *

Minerva bridge:

"Captain, we now have a visual of the enemy forces." The communications officer announced as an image showed up on the center monitor showing the Archangel and Eternal in front heading for them, the rest of the ORB forces following behind.

"Umm... Captain..." Arthur turned his head as he said that. Talia was locked in thought right now.

'Yes... it is true that we have no way of knowing what awaits us in the future... and yes we can only pick the path that suits us. However, this madness must end. I have made your choice, and so have you, Murrue Ramius.' Talia thought.

"Captain? Orders." Arthur asked.

"Right... sorry. This ship will now enter battle and engage the enemy. Send out the Impulse and have it guard the ship. Tell the Destiny and Legend to launch. Activate all weaponry. Target, the Archangel!" She ordered as the Impulse's Core Splendor platform was raised, Lunamaria fiddling with the controls. The Minerva's missile launchers opened up as the Tristans activated and the Isolde was raised and extended to firing position. "For the honor of Zaft, we shall face that ship today and DESTROY it!" She said.

"Yes ma'am!" The Minerva's bridge crew said as they prepared for battle.

* * *

Archangel bridge.

"The Minerva is closing and locking weapons on us."

"Ten to port. Target the Minerva with the Gottfireds and Valiants. Prepare to fire Corinthos. For the sake of our nation and for the sake of our world we shall face Zaft and stop them once and for all." Murrue ordered.

"Yes ma'am!" The Archangels bridge replied.

'Captain Gladys...' Murrue thought with a look of determination on her face.

* * *

"Gah! You'll pay for doing this! Is this really worth it if it means many people need to die?" Cagalli asked as the Akatsuki unleashed its DRAGOONs and had them fly all over the place, taking out several GOUFs. The Strike Freedom was also helping out with its DRAGOONs and the Infinite Justice closed in on the two. "Kira... Athrun..."

"Cagalli, I want you to guard the Archangel." Kira said.

"What? No! I'm going out there!" She raged.

"Cagalli... listen..." Kira tried to calm his sister. "The Archangel will be fighting the Minerva in this battle. I'm sure of it. This will be the hardest battle that Captain Ramius has fought in since they destroyed the Dominion, I can guarantee you that right now. I want you to stay near her and give her the upper hand." Kira ordered.

"I'm going to guess right now that Shinn and Rey are onboard that ship and will be launching. Try to avoid them... Cagalli. We'll take care of them." Athrun said.

"Shinn...? That BRAT? THAT ARROGENT LITTLE..." She raged.

"Is the pilot of the machine that nearly killed you in ORB..." Athrun said.

"Errgggg!" She growled. "I'll get him!" She raged.

"No! I will... you take out the Impulse. It's piloted by the girl with the short magenta hair that was on their ship. If you go against the Destiny again, you may not come out alive. Shinn is a very tough opponent, and the only reason I managed to hold him back in ORB was because of his temper." Athrun said, not knowing that Lunamaria was Shinn's girlfriend and having her attacked, even by Cagalli, would set off his fuse.

"It's true, Cagalli. Even I had trouble with that gundam when I fought it. Whoever is piloting it is no pushover. Do not attempt to take it out alone. I'll handle the other one with the DRAGOONs... that thing... it's personal." Kira said as he remembered a little flashback of the Providence gundam and his fight with it and its pilot, Rau Le Creuset.

"Fine then. The Impulse is mine!" Cagalli said as the Shiranui Akatsuki thrusted towards the Archangel.

"Well Kira..." Athrun said.

"I'm good. Let's go. We're not going to win this battle by standing still and discussing tactics." The Strike Freedom blocked an incoming beam shot with its beam shield and fired it's chest cannon, killing the opposing ZAKU.

* * *

"Lunamaria Hawke, Core Splendor, I'm taking off!" Lunamaria said as the Impulse's Core Splendor left the Minerva, the chest flyer, leg flyer, and Force Silhouette following it before all four pieces combined into the Force Impulse and she headed out.

"Rey Za Burrel, in Legend, taking off." Rey said as the Legend gundam left the Minerva, it's phase shift changing its color slightly.

"Shinn Asuka, Destiny, launching!" Shinn yelled as the Destiny gundam launched from the Minerva's starboard side catapult, activating it's bright pinkish-red wings of light and creating many afterimages as it flew away from its ship.

* * *

The Minerva and Archangel closed in on each other, entering the range of each other's weapons as they faced each other down.

"FIRE!" Both Captains yelled as their ships began to unleash hell, the Minerva firing it's Isolde, launching it's Neidhardts, and shooting it's Tristans and the Archangel shot a bright yellow blast from each of it's Valiants, four beam shots from the Gottfrieds, and launched many Corinthos missiles from it's reach launchers. The camera now shows the Minerva take a direct hit to the middle of its starboard side wing from the Archangel's port side Gottfried and Valiant. That part being severed from the ship. However at the same time the Archangel also suffers damage, having it's port side catapult door blow open violently.

"Uggh..." The Minerva's bridge crew groaned as they suffered that hit.

"Twenty to port. Evasive maneuver. Fire anti-beam depth charges, stat." Talia ordered.

* * *

Closing in on the Moon, slowly but surely, was the Messiah space station...

* * *

The Legend gundam raced around the battlefield, taking out several ORB mobile suits at once with its many DRAGOONs until Rey spotted his target.

'There you are... Kira Yamato!' The pilot of the Legend said as he raced towards the Strike Freedom gundam and deployed his DRAGOONs and firing them at Kira, the Ultimate Coordinator dodging the beams and deploying his own DRAGOONs.

"What is this? Who are you? Why are you doing this?" Kira said as the Strike Freedom defended and counter attacked with its chest cannon, the Legend raising its beam shield to block the blast as each of the suits DRAGOONs fought each other.

"You, Kira Yamato, have to die! Your existence must come to an end! For the sake of the new world! For the sake of humanity!" Rey shouted as the Legend charged at the Strike Freedom, Kira pulling out his own beam saber and clashing blades with Rey.

"What? Who the hell are you, you sick minded person!" Kira kicked the Legend away and fired his Rail guns at it, Rey rolling out of the way and ascending slightly, dodging some fire from the Strike Freedom's DRAGOONs.

"I am... RAU LE CREUSET!" Rey yelled as he gathered all of his Dragoons around him and fired in one direction at Kira, who raised his beam shield and blocked the attack but was pushed back as both pilots brought back their DRAGOONs to recharge the batteries.

"Rau... Le Creuset... well that explains it!" Kira put away his beam saber and pulled out his two beam rifles, combined them together and shot them at the Legend, Rey strafing to avoid the blast before he tilted his smaller DRAGOON pods towards the Strike Freedom and fired at Kira.

* * *

The Infinite Justice gundam blitzed through the battlefield. Athrun went up to a Zaku and kicked it from the side, destroying the machine with the Justice's leg beams.

"Dammit! There's a lot of them! An overwhelming number!" Athrun said as he heard his controls beep and moved out of the way. "Huh?" He looked up to see where the beam cannon shot, which had come from above him, was. All he saw was a pair of massive pink energy wings. "Shinn..." Athrun said as he prepared himself to fight the Destiny.

"Athrun Zala, you worthless traitor! Today's your last day! Today's the day the world is reborn!" Shinn yelled as he pulled out his anti-ship sword and came at the Justice full force.

"Err..." Athrun said as he raised his shield and blocked Shinn's downward swing. "Why are you doing this, Shinn? Is this what you really want?" Athrun asked as the Infinite Justice attempted to cut off one of the Destiny's legs with it's leg beams. Shinn saw this and raised his legs and body, avoiding the swing and flipping the Destiny over the Infinite Justice and turning around so that Athrun has his back to Shinn's front as Shinn attempted to swing the sword again, Athrun thrusting forward and dodging it as Shinn took his left hand off of the sword and fired his Palma Fiocina at the Justice, Athrun strafing to evade.

"Why yes, it is. Unlike you it didn't take me forever to pick a side. Unlike you I am not going to back out and be a fucking traitor. And unlike you, I am going to survive this battle." Shinn said as the Destiny backed off and redied its massive beam cannon, shooting Athrun from a range where the Infinite Justice had little fighting capability.

"There will be no 'new world'. You're new world is one where people are slaves to their own genes. Is that what you want? Is that what you think is good? How? How the hell could you possibly come to that conclusion, you idiot!" Athrun said as the Infinite Justice detached its Fatum-01 flight pack and launched it at the Destiny.

"How dare a traitor like you attempt to talk down to me!" Shinn said as he 'jumped over' the incoming flight pack and pulled out his sword again and came at the Infinite Justice, Athrun moving out of the way and having his sublight lifter dock with him as he pulled out his beam naginata and engaged Shinn in melee combat. "Athrun Zala. I can tell you right now what is going to happen today. Today you die, and I will be the one to kill you for treason!" Shinn said in a cold and serious voice as her entered SEED mode and pushed on at the Infinite Justice, knocking it back as Athrun activated his own SEED mode and came at Shinn, the two of them engaging in a fight of swings, slashes, and dodges.

"YOU CRAZY BASTARD!" Athrun yelled.

* * *

"Take this! And this!" Lunamaria said as she fired her beam rifle at a Murasume, taking it out as the Force Impulse blazed across the battlefield. Unfortunately for her she was about to meet an enemy machine that was out of the Impulse's league.

"What the? You murderer!" Cagalli said as the Shiranui Akatsuki noticed the destroyed Murasume and rushed at the Force Impulse. "I'll get you for that!" Cagalli said as she pulled out one of her beam sabers and swung at Lunamaria, hitting her shield. Lunamaria took a swing at Cagalli but the Princess of ORB pulled back and blocked with her own shield before deploying the Shiranui pack's seven DRAGOONs.

"Huh? Ah!" Lunamaria said as she did her best to avoid the incoming fire; however the Impulse did take a scratch at it lower left foot and right arm, but no major damage. "What the hell is this thing?" Luna asked as she fired her beam rifle at the Akatsuki, the shot being deflected back.

"This thing? This is what will defend ORB from people like you! People who want to enslave humanity! How disgusting!" Cagalli fired her beam rifle at the Impulse, Lunamaria blocking as she came at the Akatsuki head on with a beam saber and tried to slash at it, but was blocked when the golden gundam created a beam shield with its DRAGOONs, blocked the hit, lowered the shield, and then fired it's beam rifle at the Force Impulse, blowing up the gundam's head.

"Ahh! Shinn!" Luna yelled as she evaded the Akatsuki.

"Shinn? You like that guy? That brat? That rage filled punk ass murderer? You're disgusting!" Cagalli unleashed a full burst from her DRAGOONs on the Force Impulse before calling them back to recharge.

"You don't understand. I love him, he's a nice guy!" Luna said as she pulled out her beam saber and came at Cagalli again. 'Fucking thing... I can't kill it with beams at all!' She said as she clashed blades with the Princess.

"Ya... sure he is. A man who cannot ever hope to escape from the past... a man who makes grudges and is controlled by his own blind and irrational hatred... a man who kills just because another has killed, never realizing that the cycle will never end that way... you love him?" Cagalli kicked the Force Impulse away.

* * *

The Archangel fired both of its Gottfrieds and fired a barrage of missiles at the Minerva, which was no longer facing it, but rather the bow of the Archangel was facing the Minerva's center section where the Isolde was and the Minerva was facing the area to the Archangel's port. The smaller ship's CIWS tried to take out the missiles, shooting as fast as they could. Several missiles made it through and hit the bow port side CIWS, destroying them as the Gottfried fire collided with the port side missile launcher.

"Port side launchers damaged. Bow CIWS operating at 50%!" A bridge officer yelled.

"Raise bow thirty five. Fifteen to port. Calibrate main weapons!" Talia ordered as the Minerva shook.

"Tristan two, fire!" Arthur yelled as the Duel beam cannon on the Minerva's port fired, taking out the Archangel's starboard side Gottfried.

* * *

"Sealing off bulkheads in Gottfried one." Dalida informed as he pressed buttons on his console.

"The Minerva is coming at us and looks like it will pass us as it fires." Neumann said.

'Damn does she intend to take us out with her artillery gun as she passes by?' Murrue thought. Helldarts, fire. Target the Minerva's triple gun! Aim Gottfried two!" Murrue ordered as the Archangel fired its bridge missiles, the small projectiles looping around and heading for the Minerva as it approached the Archangel.

* * *

"Target their bridge with the Isolde. Fire on-" Talia tried to order.

"Incoming missiles headed for the Isolde." Bart informed.

"Belay that order. Arthur, shoot down those missiles. Tristan two, target the Archangel's port side." Talia ordered.

"Starboard side launchers and Isolde, fire!" Arthur yelled as the Minerva fired some missiles and its triple gun in addition to its CIWS at the missiles, taking them out.

* * *

"Gottfried two, fire!" Murrue yelled.

* * *

"Tristan two, fire!" Talia yelled. The two ships fired their double beam cannons as they passed each other, the Gottfried hitting the body of the Minerva below the Isolde and the Tristan hitting the Archangel on its port leg.

* * *

"Roll ninety to starboard and pull away. Aim Valiants!" Murrue ordered.

"Yes ma'am!" Neumann said as he changed the Archangel's direction.

"Get Cagalli back here, stat!" Murrue said.

* * *

"Mimic them. Roll ninety to starboard. At least we'll make sure our weapons don't get hit." Talia ordered as Malik turned the Minerva to face away, when the Valiants fired they hit the Minerva's underside, doing some damage but better than having them hit the weapons, engines, or bridge. "Good. Continue to turn until we're facing them again. Make sure we don't get hit."

"Roger." Malik said.

"Neidhardts, fire!" Arthur ordered as the Minerva fired off some more missiles.

* * *

The Eternal was taking fire from incoming Zaft suits. However at the same time its three DOM's were doing a good job of holding them off. A Zaku threw a grenade which although it didn't hit the pink vessel due to its CIWS did shake the people inside of it a little bit.

"Gah... how are we doing? How long until we break though?" Andrew Waltfeld asked.

"We're still a ways away. The good news is that the other fleet holding them off above Requiem are still holding out fine." Meyrin said.

"That's good. As long as they stay there Zaft can't fire an uninterrupted burst from the Requiem." Lacus said.

"Incoming mobile suits from port side. Incoming Laurasia-class dead ahead." Meyrin warned. 'Sister... where are you out there...'

"Evade! Fire all launchers! Main cannon, fire!" Andrew Waltfeld ordered as the Eternal fired its weapons.

* * *

"Yes, I am Rau Le Creuset! Mankind's dream! Mankind's desire! Mankind's Destiny! You are the splendid result of this, Kira Yamato!" Rey yelled as the two gundams circled each other while firing their beam rifles as their DRAGOONs chased each other around, ever one gundam getting a true advantage over the other.

"Even still, why do this? Why follow his path? What's the point?" Kira asked as the Strike Freedom moved out of the way of beam fire, it's blue wings of light glowing.

"AHHHHH!" Rey yelled as the two gundams each unleashed a full burst with each of their weapons on each other, although both of them blocked the attacks with their beam shield and were pushed back. "Ahhh!" Rey screamed as the Legend was pushed back.

"That doesn't mean you have to share his past!" Kira said, his eyes changing as he activated his SEED mode. Rey sent both of the Legend's largest DRAGOONs directly at the Strike Freedom. Kira put his beam rifles away and pulled out his beam sabers as they closed in. "Just because I may be this specialized 'Ultimate Coordinator', doesn't mean I have to have my life dictated by someone like you!" Kira swung his beam sabers down as the Legend's larger DRAGOONs passed by him. There was a split second pause as the devices passed the winged gundam before they exploded. "AND THE WORLD WE LIVE IN IS STILL WORTH PROTECTING!" Kira yelled as he pulled out his beam rifles again and began to target Rey's DRAGOONs directly with both the Strike Freedom and his own DRAGOONs.

"I disagree with you to every extent possible!" Rey said as the Legend did the same as the Strike Freedom. "I AM RAU LE CREUSET. I WAS GIVEN A PITIFULLY SHORT EXISTANCE BECAUSE OF YOU, AND THEREFORE YOU WILL DIE WITH ME!" Rey yelled as the Legend dodged fire from one of the Strike Freedom's DRAGOONs before quickly turning around and taking another one of them out.

"I won't go down without a fight! IF YOU ARE RAU LE CREUSET THEN YOU KNOW THAT YOU FOUGHT AGAINST ME BEFORE IN AN ATTEMPT TO TWIST HUMANITY AND YOU HAVE LOST. IT WILL BE THE SAME NOW!" Kira yelled as the Strike Freedom stretched out both of it's arms and fired it's beam rifles, taking out two of the Legend's DRAGOONs as Rey took out one of his. The Strike Freedom and Legend continued to fire upon both each other and their DRAGOONs in a storm of beams until all of the Legend's DRAGOONs and all of the Strike Freedom's DRAGOONs were destroyed.

"TODAY I CHANGE THE PAST!" Rey said as the Legend pulled out it's beam sabers and charged at the Strike Freedom.

"TODAY I DEFEND THE FUTURE!" Kira said as he charged at Rey with both of his sabers.

"NAAAHHHH!" Both pilot's yelled as they clashed blades. Swung downwards at Kira with his right hand and Kira raised his left hand to block before kicking the Legend away with his left foot. Rey put his left arm over his body and tried to block his cockpit but Kira swung downwards with his right hand beam saber and cut that arm off before firing his beam cannon right into the center of the Legend gundam, piercing it's cockpit and ending Rey Za Burrel's life as the Strike Freedom made use of it's wings of light and flew back as quickly as it could to avoid the incoming blast from the Legend's nuclear reactor.

'Shinn... it's up to you. You can beat this guy...' Rey thought as he died.

"Eternal, I'm coming back. Get the spare DRAGOONs ready." Kira said as the Strike Freedom headed back to the Eternal, it's wings of light shinning a bright light blue.

* * *

"We've just lost the signal from the Legend, Mister Chairman." A man on Messiah's bridge informed. Durandal was a little shocked.

'Rey has been defeated?' Gilbert thought before looking a little pissed off. "What's the status of Station Two? And how long till we can fire Neo-Genesis?" He asked.

"Still a bit sir. We've giving the engines all they got."

"Fine then! But hurry it up!"

* * *

The Infinite Justice and Destiny gundams clashed blades once again. Athrun backed off away from Shinn, who was holding his Arondight sword prepared to come at him as Athrun launched the claw that was in the Infinite Justice's shield at Shinn, grabbing onto his right arm.

"Why do you want to kill me, Shinn? Why do you want this plan to go through?" Athrun asked.

"Because..." Shinn took his left hand and grabbed the wire that connected the Infinite Justice's claw to the shield loosely, well, more like he placed the hand near the wire, and used his palm beam cannon on it, breaking the wire before grabbing the claw off of his right arm. "You've gotten away with far too much, Athrun Zala." Shinn redied his anti-ship sword and activated the Destiny's wings of light. "You've changed sides so many times it's not even funny." Shinn charged at Athrun, who clashed blades with him as the two passed by, the Destiny's wings of light clearly putting out more thruster power than the Fatum-01 could produce at maximum output. (Because the Destiny is faster than any other CE mobile suit with wings of light activated, derp.)

"So, what's your point? I should die because of that?" Athrun said as he turned around, only to find Shinn closer to him than he thought.

"You come to back to Zaft, as an ex-pilot and a traitor to both the PLANTs for what you did last war and for ditching that Princess Cagalli Yula bitch. Yet for some reason you were pampered and given a high ranking and new top of the line machine instantaneously." The two gundams blitzed by each other again, clashing blades, except this time the large camera horn on the top of the Infinite Justice was severed off, as was the top the gundam's left shoulder armor. "Imagine how I, someone who worked their damn ass off and had been loyal to Zaft since he joined felt once he heard that happen. And what's worse, when you came back you could order me around!" Shinn said as he turned around and came at the Infinite Justice again.

"Yes, I came back to Zaft... until I found out that the Chairman had no good intentions for the world." Athrun said as he saw the Destiny coming at him with his green SEED mode eyes.

"No good intentions? The Chairman wants to end war forever! He wants all this pointless conflict gone, as do I, yet you so arrogantly stand in my way, our way." Shinn said as he swung at Athrun, but the Infinite Justice ascended at the last second and leapt over the Destiny, getting behind it and facing upside down as Athrun pulled out his beam boomerang.

"You're just mad because your family unfortunately died. Everyone dies. Yet you think this plan, this slavery to our own genome would fix everything?" Athrun said as he tossed the beam boomerang. The Destiny quickly turned around using its wings of light and slashed the boomerang with its sword.

"If it wasn't obvious enough already. You continue to defend ORB, the nation that let them die." Shinn and Athrun clashed blades again, strafing past one another. "And you also imply that the Chairman forcing his own views on humanity is a bad thing, yet you are hypocritical." Shinn said as the Destiny swung around and headed at the Infinite Justice again.

"Hypocritical? How? How the hell am I HYPOCRITICAL?" The Infinite Justice crossed blades with the Destiny again. 'This is going nowhere. I'll use the lifter next time around.' Athrun thought.

"Because you betray the people who have grown to trust you until you get on the side that matches your views perfectly. If they don't you defect again. And then, once you've found that side, you help them force their views that you share, on society, at least until they decide to have a change of pace; to change their opinion from something differing from yours, and then you leave. You worthless scumbag!" Shinn said as he turned around he saw the Infinite Justice's Fatum-01 sublight lifted heading right for him. "It will take more than that..." Shinn ducked and avoided getting his by the flying backpack as he quickly turned around and pulled out his beam cannon. "To beat me!" Shinn yelled as he fired his beam cannon at the Fatum-01, destroying it as the Infinite Justice came at him and tried to slice him in half, but Shinn ascended and avoided the attack.

"So I should just let you kill me because of that?" Athrun asked as the Infinite Justice and Destiny distanced themselves, the Infinite Justice holding it's beam naginata and the Destiny holding it's Arondight sword. The two pilots then came at each other full force, the Destiny's wings blazing as it left after images in it's wake.

"You should let your actions finally catch up to you. You should accept that time has caught up to you, Athrun Zala, and you will be punished for the many times you have betrayed others to further your own goals. You should accept what Justice has deemed your fate instead of cheating death again. You WILL accept..." The Destiny and Infinite Justice came at each other and slashed at each other as they passed by in a fury of light and energy. All sound stopped as the two mobile suits stopped with their backs to each other. The camera cuts inside Athrun's cockpit to show the pilot of the Infinite Justice looking okay until he coughs up some blood. Outside you see that when the Destiny passed by the Infinite Justice it cut the two beam sabers where they were connected and went through the cockpit afterwards.

"...Your Destiny." Shinn said as the Destiny gundam deactivated it's wings of light and sheathed it's Arondight anti-ship sword as the Infinite Justice gundam exploded behind him, destroying the machine and _ending_ the life of Athrun Zala, the Red Knight, permanently. "**The guilty have been punished and Justice has finally been done on this day.**" He said to himself as the communications line on the Destiny.

"SHINN! COME HELP ME!" Lunamaria screamed at her boyfriend. Shinn's eyes opened up wide as he heard this.

"Luna, I'm coming. Hold on for a little longer! Don't die on me!" Shinn thought as the Destiny pulled out it's beam rifle and activated it's wings of light as it headed for the location on its radar that showed where the Impulse was.

* * *

-To be continued-


	4. P50: Destiny of Freedom

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam SEED/Gundam Seed Destiny

* * *

Well one of the reviewers is going to be angry.

As a fair warning, when I made forty-nine, it was around 7k words... this chapter is more than double that. Sorry...

Well... wasn't that interesting? Anyway, I do intend to answer review questions in the justification chapter at the end of the fic, but there's one that I'll make an exception for.

Guest wrote: Amazing chapter and quick question are you intentionally making cagalli the shinn of this story

Response: Not really. Shinn, Cagalli, and Yzak each have a similar, hotheaded personality. I made Cagalli say those things to give the sense that she's not going to sit there and act stupid and do nothing of value like what Morosawa did to her in the series. It's just to give her a sense of a fighter.

Yue Asuka: Thanks for telling me that her name is Abby. As for your comment on my characters being OOC... well I'll address that in the justification chapter.

So anyway, onto Phase 50

* * *

The ORB fleet continued to fight against the Zaft forces some distance from the Requiem, seemingly locked in a stalemate of sorts, where neither side was gaining to the upper hand. Above the Requiem super weapon however, things were different. The force consisting of Alliance and Zaft vessels that sought to aid ORB in it's fight against the Destiny Plan were doing much better, in fact, one could say they were winning. This was mainly due to the fact that Chairman Gilbert Durandal had assigned more ships and mobile suits, as well as the Zaft Battle Ship Minerva and Super Carrier Gondwana to fight off ORB's Fleet consisting of the Archangel, Eternal, and ORB's Izumo-class vessels as well as some stay ships. However both sides had just taken significant loses. Athrun Zala, the Red Knight had just been killed by Shinn Asuka. In addition to this, Rey Za Burrel fought against Kira Yamato and lost his life. Now, as Shinn heads back to the thick of the battle, killing the man of many treasonous actions, his girlfriend, Lunamaria Hawke faces off against the Akatsuki gundam.

* * *

Zaft fortress Messiah:

"Station Two positioning in one sixty."

"Neo Genesis, power charge at forty percent." High Ranking Zaft officers informed their leader, Chairman Gilbert Durandal as the Space Fortress inched closer and closer to its target, the man who had tricked the entire world with the fake Lacus Clyne sat in his chair, a satisfied look on his face as he thought about how the next couple of actions would take place.

'Ah, yes. Station Two will be in position by the time Messiah is ready to fire upon the forces blocking Requiem from unleashing it's full power. Once we clear them out nothing will stand between that cannon and the destruction of ORB, and with that nation gone, peace will come, for there will exist not one single human being or organization who could hope to resist the Destiny Plan...' Gilbert thought.

* * *

"All starboard side launchers, Neidhardts, fire!" Arthur Trine yelled as the Minerva unleashed a barrage of missiles from the functioning launchers on it's starboard side, the port side ones taken out earlier by the Archangel. The white ship managed to destroy all the missiles with it's CIWS as the Minerva fired it's two Tristans at the Archangel, which evaded as it fired it's Valiants back at the Minerva to return the favour.

"What's the status of the Destiny? The Impulse? The Legend?" Talia Gladys asked her ships communications officer, Abby, who typed away at her keyboard before giving an answer.

"We lost the signal from the Legend." The green suit responded as the camera cuts to show the Strike Freedom gundam enter the Eternal. "The Impulse is currently engaging an ORB mobile suit." The camera then shifts to show the headless Force Impulse engaged in melee combat with the Akatsuki gundam, which had called back it's DRAGOONs to recharge. "And Shinn is heading back. He was fighting something... and won. Now that I think about it I am no longer detecting the Justice's thermal pattern anywhere on radar." The camera now shows an image of the tattered and destroyed Infinite Justice, it's head floating in space as a red bloodstained ORB helmet floated nearby.

"What did you say?" Talia looked surprised as she heard that.

"Rey's down? Shinn defeated Athrun? I knew he could do it!" Arthur cheered a little, Talia giving him a glare.

'I guess the punishment for treason is death... all the more reason we need to win this battle!' Talia thought as she saw incoming missiles from the Archangel. "Twenty to port. Lower bow fifteen!" She ordered as the ship made evasive manuevers.

* * *

Shinn could be seen blazing towards the Impulse as fast as he could. The Destiny with it's anti-ship sword drawn in it's right hand charging forward like the powerful machine it was.

"Lunamaria, hang on, I'm coming!" Shinn yelled.

* * *

The camera cuts to show the Shiranui Akatsuki engaged in combat with the Force Impulse, Luna clearly on the back foot due to having an inferior machine.

"Why do you support this plan? Why do you want so many people to die? Do you know what's going to happen if ORB loses? People, innocent people, will die!" Cagalli said as the golden gundam pulled away and deployed it's seven DRAGOONs.

"Because... Shinn supports it. And I... I LOVE HIM!" Luna said as she tried to evade the incoming fire, the Impulse having the large wing on the right side of the Force pack severed off. "AHHH!" She screamed.

"If you love him then wouldn't it be better if you back off so that I can stop wasting time fighting you and fight for my nation, for my people? You know what's going to happen if Requiem is allowed to fire, right? ORB will burn! My nation has a population in the millions. Think off all the innocent people who would die because you had to get in my way because you love one man." Cagalli said as Force Impulse closed in on the Shiranui Akatsuki with it's beam saber drawn and prepared to kill Cagalli. A small golden SEED appeared in Cagalli's eyes as she activated her SEED mode for the second time ever, boosting her piloting abilities.

"I don't care about ORB! You hid behind your ideals and because of that Shinn lost his family! Then in the second war you came out of your closet and as a result of this one of our ace pilots, Heine Westenfluss, as well as several of my ships crew members died. People I knew died because of your nation! And then you kept that man Djibril safe... and look what happened!" Luna screamed as she came at Cagalli. "Ah!" She screamed as the attempted to impale the other gundam in the chest full force and dead on, but Cagalli put her shield near her body and when the saber was in range she straightened out the Akatsuki's left elbow, causing the shield to be raised away from her body and deflect the beam saber away. Cagalli then pulled out her own beam saber and cut off the Impulse's right forearm.

"You don't know what you're talking about, do you? How do you think I felt when my nation had betrayed it's very foundation and moved away from its founding values and there was nothing I could do to stop it, no matter how much I tried." The Akatsuki moved away from the Force Impulse again and then surrounded the Zaft machine with it's DRAGOONs and contained it in a force field. "Please, back off. Let me do my job and protect my people. Let me not fail again to keep them safe, like what happened to Shinn's family. I think he would like that... I'm giving you one chance... NOW TAKE IT!" Cagalli screamed. Luna then thought for a second about Cagalli's offer.

'But... Shinn... should I do this... maybe I should... it does make sense.' Lunamaria thought as she remembered her boyfriend, Shinn. However, at the same time she remembered how hard he had fought against ORB... how he put every effort in to beat them and crush them whenever the Minerva faced off against the ORB forces... and how he had this vigour in his eyes... this desire... to destroy ORB. 'No... Shinn would want to see ORB Destroyed.' She thought before she yelled out over the radio to Cagalli. "NO! SHINN WOULD WANT TO SEE ORB BURN FOR WHAT THEY DID! HE DOESN'T CARE FOR YOUR NATION ANYMORE! HE DOESN'T GIVE A DAMN!" Luna yelled as she threw the Impulse's shield at one of the DRAGOONs, Cagalli cancelling the force field and moving the DRAGOON out of the way as Luna came at her with her one remaining beam saber in the Force Impulses' left arm. "AHHH!"

"No... you... fine then!" Cagalli retracted the DRAGOONs to recharge as she combined her beam sabers into the beam naginata and came at the Force Impulse, clashing blades with Lunamaria once again.

* * *

The Strike Freedom docked into position in the Eternal's hanger bay. The engineering crew immediately went to work trying to replace the eight DRAGOONs with spare parts, working as fast as they could. Kira got out of his cockpit and headed for the bridge elevator.

"Lacus. What's our status?" He asked as he floated towards the pink haired girl, her face filled with sadness and worry.

"Kira... you need to see this..." She got up and walked towards Meyrin's station, Kira following her. "Look." She pointed towards something on the console screen. Kira's eyes turned to beach balls as he saw it.

"What?" He said as he stared at the screen, which showed a diagram of the Infinite Justice with a window open over top of the gundam with the words 'Signal Lost' written. "Athrun..." He said. In Meyrin's eyes you could see tears of sadness, although neither Kira or Lacus looked at her face.

"Has fallen... and what's worse as that the gundam that defeated him is heading for us." Lacus said as she pointed to the symbol on the screen which said 'ZGMF-X42S' on it. Kira clenched his fists.

"Where's Cagalli? And how long will it take to fix the Strike Freedom's weapons?" He asked. "I need to get out there, right now." He informed as Meyrin scanned the screen, looking for 'ORB-01', but looked incredibly surprised, and scared, as he saw it, and then began to yell into her mic.

"SISTER! LUNA! STOP IT!" Meyrin screamed into the mic as she saw that the Akatsuki was engaged in combat with the Force Impulse. "LUNA!" She screamed. As she did Kira noticed something: The heat signature of a Second Series Zaft mobile suit was headed right for Lunamaria and Cagalli, and at it was travelling faster than any mobile suit Kira had ever seen. Suddenly he twitches a little as he remembers how quick the Destiny was when he fought it in ORB.

"Your sister... is fighting Cagalli..." Kira said in a low tone before getting a look of determination on his face. "I'll standby in the Freedom so I can launch as soon as it's ready to go. I need to get out there and put an end to this." Kira said as he quickly floated back over to the elevator, Lacus looking like she was going to hug him but couldn't. 'Dammit... this has to end! Right now!'

* * *

"Captain Gladys." The commanding officer of a Nazca-class ship appeared on one of the screens in the Minerva's bridge.

"We've got to defeat the forces here and then go back and defend the Requiem. Time is of the essence. Have your mobile suits fight like they've never fought before." Captain Gladys ordered.

"Coming at us from above our port bow, Archangel, distance sixteen." The Abby said as Talia looked out the screen that showed the battlefield, showing the Archangel coming at the Minerva from above and ahead of it to the left, firing missiles.

"Incoming missiles, twenty of them!" Bart alerted the bridge crew as the Minerva positioned it's Isolde and fired it along with it's CIWS, taking out the missiles as well as creating a massive cloud of smoke as the Archangel fired it's one remaining Gottfried and two Valiants at the Minerva, the cloud messing up the accuracy and causing only one Valiant to hit the stern of the ship on the fin and helipad, doing enough damage to destroy that part but not critically hurt the Minerva.

"Ready Tristans! Fire!" She ordered as the Minerva fired it's two double beam cannons at the Archangel, clipping off its starboard fin.

* * *

"Meyrin? On the Eternal?" Luna said as she fought the SEED mode Cagalli, barely holding steady with her one beam saber. "You're alive?" She asked, a shocked look on her face as she pulled back to dodge a swing as Cagalli deployed her DRAGOONs and opened fire again.

"Yes, I'm alive! Why are you fighting us sister? Why?" Meyrin asked her sister over the line as Luna got hit in the right foot of the Impulse and lost that part of the suit. "Stop it! You're going to die!" Meyrin screamed.

"NO! I can't! I'm doing this... for Shinn! This is what he wants! He wants to see ORB burn for what it's done!" She said as she came at the Akatsuki full force trying to impale the cockpit again. "BECAUSE I LOVE HIM!" She yelled.

"LUNA STOP IT!" Meyrin yelled as the Force Impulse came at the Akatsuki and thrusted her blade forward. "LUNAMARIA! NO!" Meyrin screamed on the Eternal's bridge, Lacus looking sad as was Andrew Waltfeld. The camera now cuts to show the Shiranui Akatsuki and Impulse gundams. The Akatsuki had moved to the right and avoided Luna's beam as the SEED mode Cagalli thrusted her beam naginata into the Impulse's cockpit. "Sister... Luna..." Meyrin began to cry as she saw the Impulse's symbol on the screen disappear. Inside the cockpit of the Shiranui Akatsuki Cagalli pulls away, a mostly neutral and partially sad look on her face.

'I'm... sorry... but she gave me no choice... It was either her or me...' Cagalli thought.

Off in the distance, just closing in, was the one and only Destiny gundam. Inside Shinn had a horrified look on his face as he saw that Luna had just been killed.

"No... Luna... LUNA!" He screamed and cried as he looked at what was responsible for killing her. 'I... I couldn't get to her in time...' He thought as he looked at the golden gundam with a very angry look on his face. "That... thing... this time... it burns!" A fire like no other formed in Shinn's SEED mode eyes, tears pouring out of them as he remembered his family's death, Stella's death, and now Luna's death and drew out his beam sword and extended his shield before activating his wings of light and charging at the Akatsuki as quickly as the Destiny could move. "AHHHH!"

"What!? YOU? EERRRRRGGG!" Cagalli screamed as she saw the incoming Destiny gundam and blocked the incoming downward slash to her head with her beam saber.

"What do you have against me? WHAT?" Shinn raged as the Destiny raised it's Arondight sword above it's head and swung down again, Cagalli thrusting backwards, barely avoiding the hit.

"What are you talking about? I have nothing against you, other than the fact that you're a crazed murderer!" Cagalli said as the Shiranui Akatsuki deployed it's seven DRAGOONs and sent them at the Destiny in order to get some distance between it.

"What am I talking about?" Shinn said as the Destiny swerved in between the fire from the DRAGOONs, either evading them or blocking them with his beam shields. The Destiny then sheathed it's anti-ship sword and pulled out it's beam rifle in one hand and activated it's beam cannon. "You know exactly what I'm talking about, liar!" He said as he fired the cannon dead on at a DRAGOON, the blast being deflected due to the Akatsuki's Yata-no-Kagami armor and heading back at the Destiny, Shinn blocking it with his beam shield. 'You're joking... this thing has the reflective armor on it's pods as well? Shit!' Shinn thought.

"No, actually, I don't." The Akatsuki put one of it's beam sabers back on it's side skirt and connected the other to it's beam rifle, forming it's beam bayonette. "Although considering you, this thing that 'I have against you' is probably some crazed theory." She fired her beam rifle at the Destiny as it weaved through her fire with it's wings of light blazing through space.

"I'm talking about how you, ORB, need to constantly interfere with my life, even after I left your nation, and in doing so, take away everything that has ever been dear to me! EVERYTHING!" Shinn sheathed his current weapons and pulled out his two beam boomerangs and caused their beams to extend to the length of beam sabers. "My family. Stella, Lunamaria... everything..." Shinn weeped as the Destiny charged at one of the DRAGOONs head on and made evasive actions so precise that he avoided the shots coming from it by a hair before getting in close enough and chopping the DRAGOON in half before it could get away. 'If their immune to my ranged weapons I'm better off using the boomerangs as beam sabers and going at them myself.' Shinn thought. In the cockpit of the Akatsuki Cagalli looked a little shocked.

'Has... has that been the outcome of our actions? Has my nation really... taken away everything that Shinn held dear. Oh my... no...' She looked a little sad but then regained control as she began to open fire on Shinn again as the Akatsuki got a little closer to the Destiny. "That girl who just died came after me and tried to kill me first. I tried to tell her to stop, but she didn't!" Cagalli retracted her remaining six DRAGOONs and pulled out her other beam saber. "She tried to kill me... because she said that my nation needed to burn, and that she was doing it because it was something you wanted to see happen." The Destiny closed in on the Akatsuki and clashed blades again.

"That's true. I do want to see ORB burn. I want to see ORB burn for all the terrible things it's done!" Shinn said as the Destiny chopped off a piece of the Shiranui Akatsuki's right shoulder armor, as well as destroying the DRAGOON that was connected the pack behind it. "And I want to see you die for what you've done to my life." Shinn said as the Destiny took another swing at Cagalli, but she kicked him in the torso in just a nick of time and backed off.

'Fully recharged... good...' Cagalli thought as she deployed the DRAGOONs again and let them loose on Shinn. "Die? You want me to die? Have not enough people already lost their lives in this war over very stupid reasons?" She asked as she fired her beam rifle at Shinn, who evaded and went after another two DRAGOONs, destroying them and bringing the count down to three. 'Damn... if only I had Kira's piloting abilities... I'm not good enough to get those to evade him.' Cagalli thought.

"You're nation is blocking us from achieving our goal. To end war forever. Therefore it must be done! The ends justify the means!" Shinn said as he remembered what Rey had told him just before news of the battle was heard and they had heard that Requiem had been fired on an Alliance Lunar city. "If the ends is ending all this suffering and conflict forever, then the means is perfectly justified!" Shinn said as he evaded a couple more blasts from the DRAGOONs

"What kind of sick logic is that? What if you have to kill ninety percent of humanity to achieve that? Is it really worth it?" Cagalli asked as she pulled back her remaining three DRAGOONs and disassembled her beam bayonette, combining her sabers into a beam naginata in her left hand as she held the rifle in her right, hoping to get a shot off at Shinn when he got close, which he was quickly doing. When the Destiny tried to swing at her with its left hand Cagalli pointed the beam rifle at the gundam's cockpit.

"Don't even dare!" Shinn said as he quickly cancelled his swing and put his hand in front of his cockpit and activated the beam shield, deflecting the blast when Cagalli fired it and then swung downwards with his boomerang beam saber, destroying the Akatsuki's Hyakurai beam rifle.

"Ahhh!" Cagalli screamed as she was forced back.

* * *

The Strike Freedom was nearly complete with it's repairs, but for Kira, nearly was eternity. Another DRAGOON was slowly slid onto one of the Strike Freedom's wings as the Ultimate Coordinator sat waiting in his cockpit. Suddenly, Lacus' face came onto his screen.

"Kira." She said with a hint of worry.

"Lacus, what is it? How are we doing right now?" Kira asked as he felt the Eternal shake a little from the battle outside.

"We're fine. It's Cagalli. She's... engaged that Zaft machine..." Lacus informed. Kira's eyes turned to grapefruits as he saw this. "And she's in trouble." Kira unbuckled himself and got out of the Strike Freedom's cockpit so he could ask a question to the Chief Mechanic.

"How long until the repairs are complete? I need to get out of here, and fast!" Kira asked in an urgent tone, the engineer turning and responding.

"Not long, but you've got to wait, son. We're giving her all she's got." The man said as another DRAGOON was slid onto the Strike Freedom's left wing, leaving only three left to be installed.

"Alright then..." Kira said as he got back into the cockpit and looked at Lacus. "Sorry for that. Tell Mr. Waltfeld to make sure one of the METEORs has been detached from the Eternal and is prepared to dock with the Freedom the SECOND I get out there." Kira ordered.

"Right! Good luck, Kira!" Lacus responded.

"Thank you, Lacus." Kira said as he thought of Shinn. 'I can't take any risks with this guys... I need to give it all I've got.' Kira thought as he remembered when the Freedom came at the Blast Impulse at Crete and Shinn dodged his attack before counter attacking, nearly decapitating the gundam. Then he remembered his battle with the Impulse and how he barely escaped with his life, and then he remembered the fight against the Destiny, where although Kira had the upper hand because the Destiny had exhausted some of its weapons, Shinn was still a formidable foe. Finally he remembered nearly getting blasted to bits by the Destiny before Athrun showed up. 'Athrun...' Kira thought. Kira would no longer be able to fight alongside his best friend, but on the other hand, neither would Shinn. 'Cagalli... hold on a little longer.'

* * *

The Destiny gundam avoided fire from the three remaining DRAGOONs, it's wings of light glistening as it created many after images, confusing Cagalli somewhat. The Destiny came up on two of the three remaining DRAGOONs and chopped them up as he extended his arms out before pulling back slightly and throwing the boomerang in his left hand, destroying the final Shiranui DRAGOON, catching the boomerang as it came back to him and sheathing both of them.

"What? He... destroyed all seven of them?" Cagalli asked in shock as the Akatsuki held it's beam naginata in it's right hand and held it's shield in it's left as she looked at the Destiny, it's pilot with a sick look on his face.

"Yes, I did. And now, I get to do this, and you get to die as I make you pay for all that you have done to me!" Shinn yelled as the Destiny pulled out it's Arondight anti-ship sword, extended it to full range, and activated his wings of light before charging at Cagalli. "ARRRRGHHH!" The Destiny clashed with the Akatsuki, beam naginata to beam sword.

"Shinn, I have to ask you, if Requiem is fired on ORB, what will happen?" Cagalli asked as he SEED mode eyes shed a tear as the Akatsuki swung downwards with it's right arm, the Destiny blocking by holding it's sword horizontally, the end of the blade pointing towards the Akatsuki's left and the Destiny's right.

"Don't play mind games with, me, I know what will happen!" Shinn swung upwards in a circular motion, pushing the Akatsuki's beam naginata up and back. Cagalli then attempted to kick the Destiny while it's beam end was facing downwards, however as she did Shinn counter attacked. "People will die! People always die!" Shinn let go of his sword with the Destiny's left hand and tilted his right hand, causing the beam to face upwards somewhat as he swung up and severed the Akatsuki's right leg while to was extended.

"And what about the survivors? What about the people who may survive such an accident?" Cagalli then held the beam naginata in front of her nearly vertical as Shinn performed a vertical slash from his top right to his bottom left. "They will be just like you! People who lost their family's in a tragic event!"

"I don't care!" Shinn said as the Destiny swung upwards vertically, Cagalli attempting to block with her shield, but the Arondight was too strong and cut right through it like a hot knife through butter, the Akatsuki's left arm coming off too. "As long as it means that... eventually... people will be allowed to live normal, peaceful lives without the fear of ever having war come upon them, then it's fine with me! As long as they know that their Destiny will not be interrupted brutally like mine was, then I feel I am doing them a favour. I am giving them Freedom! Freedom from war!" Shinn yelled as he performed a horizontal slash with his sword, the blade coming very close to the Akatsuki's cockpit. In fact, the blade cut a gash in the cockpit. A gash big enough so that Cagalli could see outside into space, see with her own eyes the machine that had decreed her Destiny this day.

"You don't care? They will care! Those children who will suffer the same fate as you will care! They will oppose Zaft for shattering their lives and attempting to rebuild them using the most idealistic plan ever thought of!" Cagalli said as the Shiranui Akatsuki swung downwards with it's beam naginata, Shinn blocking with his physical shield as he put the Arondight in his right hand and swung across, cutting off the Akatsuki's right hand. "Ahhh!"

"NOW PERISH!" Shinn yelled as the Destiny raised its arms high into the air, the Arondight pointing upwards and as he was about to swing downwards. All time slowed down as the Destiny gundam began to swung downwards onto the Akatsuki, Cagalli looking scared for her life, and Shinn looking very angry yet very sad. 'Beep beep beep!' Was heard from the Destiny's console. "What?" He kicked the Akatsuki to the lunar surface as he avoided the incoming beams, Cagalli looking like she fainted as her gundam crashed into the rocky surface of Earth's Moon. "Who the hell? A GOUF? A Blaze ZAKU Phantom?" Shinn looked as he saw two mass production models coming at him.

"AHHHH!" Yzak Joule yelled as his custom GOUF came at the Destiny at full speed, Dearka Elsman following in a custom Blaze ZAKU Phantom. The white GOUF opened fire with both of it's arm mounted beam cannons on the Destiny.

"What the hell? Zaft forces firing on a Zaft suit?" Shinn said as the Destiny evaded the blasts. "Who the hell are you and why are you firing on me?" Shinn asked.

"I'm Yzak Joule, a former Zaft commander. And this is Dearka Elsman, also known as the pilot of the Buster. I'm sick and tired of this snake in the grass chairman and I've had enough of his nonsense!" Yzak said as the Destiny came at him with it's Arondight, Yzak pulling out his own MMI-558 "Tempest" Beam Sword and clashing blades with the Destiny, the GOUF clearly at a disadvantage machine wise. 'Hurry up you damned ass hole and deal with this spoiled brat!' Yzak thought.

* * *

-Flashback-

"Sir we've got two mobile suits approaching from our port side. A GOUF and a ZAKU." The radar operator aboard the Eternal informed.

"Evasive man-" Andrew Waltfeld tried to say as Meyrin interrupted him.

"Wait. They're trying to contact us! It's Yzak Joule and Dearka Elsman!" Meyrin said as one of the Eternal's overhead screens turned on show Yzak Joule in a pilot's uniform.

"Yzak Joule? What the..." Andrew said.

"Long time, no see, Desert Tiger. Hopefully this battle will end in a better way than the last one you did with us..." Yzak said.

"Wait? What are you two..." Lacus tried to ask as Dearka appeared on another one of the screens.

"Settle down, guys. We've decided that what Zaft is doing is wrong and we've decided to help you win this battle." Dearka said. Andrew and Lacus smiled, but then Meyrin informed of some bad news.

"The Akatsuki is losing its DRAGOONs. Cagalli won't be able to hold on much..." Meyrin said in a sad tone, kind of sad but at the same time bitter because it was Cagalli who killed Lunamaria.

"Okay. I want you two to go hold that gundam off until Kira's machine is ready. Then take Cagalli back to the Archangel, got it?" Andrew ordered the two pilots.

"Oh fine!" Yzak said as he cut communications and left.

* * *

-End Flashback-

"Yzak!" Dearka yelled as he fired off all the missiles from his AGM138 "Firebee" Missile Launcher at the Destiny, sending off twenty eight missiles at Shinn, who pulled away from Yzak.

"You idiot! He could have stayed close to me and then pulled away at the last second! Then the missiles might of hit me!" Yzak said as the GOUF fired off more shots from its two M181SE "Draupnir" 4-barrel Beam Guns at the Destiny, Shinn activating his wings of light and dodging the shots, making some of them actually hit the missiles as he himself sheathed the Arondight and fired his beam rifle and hand cannons at the missiles to finish them off.

"That's enough out of you, you bastard!" Shinn said as the Destiny closed in on the ZAKU and fired his beam rifle at Dearka as Dearka fired back with his own.

"Dammit! This thing's fast!" Dearka said as the Destiny fired its beam rifle and took out the ZAKU's. "Oh shit!" Dearka then pulled out one of his beam tomahawks. "Back me up, Yzak!"

"This is what you get for being traitors! Just like what I did to Athrun Zala!" Shinn said as the Destiny put away it's rifle and pulled out one of its beam boomerangs and used it as a beam saber, clashing blades with the ZAKU for a second as he grabbed the right hand of Dearka's suit and used his palm cannon to destroy it.

"Dearka!" Yzak yelled as Shinn prepared to stab the ZAKU in its chest with his beam boomerang as Yzak wrapped both of his MA-M757 "Slayer Whip" Heat Rods around the Destiny's legs and pulled him away, Dearka giving a sigh of relief as Shinn was pulled back. "Get him!"

"ERRR! You're going to pay for that!" Shinn said as he activated the Destiny's wings of light and ascended, the thrust from the Destiny pulling the GOUF upwards at a quick pace before dive bombing to the lunar surface. "Crash and burn!" Shinn yelled as he cut the whips off of his legs and came out of the dive in a split second before crashing into the moon, the GOUF flying directly towards a crash.

"SHIT!" Yzak yelled as he tried to pull the GOUF upwards, but its thrust wasn't powerful enough. Then, a split second before the GOUF hit the ground, it was pulled to the side and directed off of its course. "What the?" Yzak asked.

"You can thank... me later... ow my head hurts." Cagalli said. The camera cuts outside to show that the badly damaged Akatsuki had saved Yzak in a split second, Cagalli looking like she's had better days.

"Why you bitch!" Shinn pulled out the Arondight and came at the lunar surface, looking as if he was going to take out the Akatsuki and GOUF. "I'll kill you both right now!" Shinn yelled, but then was stopped as a massive beam blocked his path. "What the hell?" He looked to where the beam was coming from and say something massive.

"You two take Cagalli back to the ship. I'll hand things from here on end." Kira said as the Strike Freedom, mounted on a METEOR, stood between the Destiny and the other mobile suits.

"Kira..." Cagalli said.

"GO! Now!" Kira said. Shinn was a little shocked but before too long his face turned to liquid anger.

"AHH! You bastard! Finally decided to show yourself!" Shinn yelled. The camera cuts to show the Akatsuki, the ZAKU, and the GOUF heading away from the Destiny and Strike Freedom. "Apparently I need to kill you twice! So be it!" Shinn yelled as the Destiny then charged at the METEOR. Kira then swung the METEOR's massive MA-X200 beam sword that was connected to the Strike Freedom's left hand at Shinn and clashed blades with the Destiny. "ERRRG! AHH!" Shinn yelled as the METEOR's arm literally pushed the Destiny down due to how strong it was. Kira then raised that arm slightly and tried to swipe the Destiny down with the other arm, but Shinn narrowly dodged it and backed off, huffing. 'What the hell is that device?' He thought to himself.

"You! You killed Athrun! Why the hell would you want to do this? What's the point?" Kira asked as the Strike Freedom unleashed a full burst from it's two 120cm high-energy beam cannons and two 93.7cm high-energy beam cannons at the Destiny. "You're just going to destroy humanity!" Kira yelled as the Destiny used its wings of light to evade the shots, blocking one with his beam shield and then closing back in on Kira.

"I disagree with you. I am going to help the Chairman free humanity from the endless chain of fighting that humanity has been in ever since it was born." Shinn said as the Destiny clashed blades with the right arm of the METEOR and was pushed back by Kira. "Ahhhhh!" Shinn yelled, stabilizing the Destiny and blocking an incoming slash from the METEOR before activating his beam cannon, the massive green barrel swinging under the shoulder of the Destiny and unfolding as Shinn gripped it and fired at the massive machine. "Eat this!"

"Errg..." Kira groaned as the METEOR swerved to avoid the blast. "And how many people are going to die in the process? Do you truly think that the loss of life... the amount of blood to be spilt is worth it?" Kira said as the Strike Freedom fired it's chest cannon and Rail guns at the Destiny, Shinn blocking with his beam shield and evading before Kira swiped at him with the METEOR's left arm, Shinn blocking with the Arondight.

"I don't know, do you? Actually, I have a better question for you, Kira Yamato. Do you think the amount of people who died so that ORB could maintain it's idealistic nature was justified? Do you think that my family's death, MY MOTHER AND FATHER AND SISTER DYING NEVER TO RETURN WAS WORTH IT JUST SO THAT ORB COULD MAINTAIN IT'S DAMNED IDEALS?" Shinn said as he closed in on the METEOR, Kira firing off a ton of missiles at the Destiny. "I'll never see them again. I'll never be allowed to play with my sister, learn from my father, or embrace my mother EVER AGAIN! It was war that took them away from me. And it is war that I shall end! It is war that I shall kill!" Shinn said as he came at Kira full force with the Arondight, the Strike Freedom manipulating the massive arms to clash blades with Shinn as he tried to push him away, but Shinn had pushed the Destiny's thrusters to their absolute limit and was holding on. "You know, that bitch Princess never did truly answer the question as to why she and her nation need to constantly take everything I have away from me, so I guess I'll ask you." Shinn said, thinking a little as the Destiny evaded a swipe from the right arm of the METEOR as he tried to close in on the actual Strike Freedom itself as it was docked on the METEOR, Kira sweating as he fired the gundam's own weapons at Shinn, causing him to have to move out of the way and sheath the Arondight.

"What the hell are you talking about? I don't mean to take everything away from you! Are you insane?" Kira said as he got some distance between the Destiny and fired a full burst with every weapon on the METEOR, Shinn dodging most of the attack with the agility his suit had as he fired off his palm cannon at incoming meteors, destroying them.

"You know exactly what I mean. My family died because of ORB, a nation that you support and defend, right now. My love Stella died. Remember the massive mobile suit that attacked Berlin? It was just a confused teenage girl piloting it. I tried to save her! SAVE HER! YOU! You had to take her away from me! And now... Lunamaria... my girlfriend is now dead, the Princess of ORB's hands drenched in her blood." Shinn said as he fired his beam cannon again, Kira narrowly dodging. 'If I put the Destiny at full power I can resist being pushed away from that thing and get close to his actual machine... but I would need another sword. I can't do it with just one. Wait, that's it!' Shinn thought as he weaved though more incoming fire. "Minerva send out the Sword Silhouette!" Shinn ordered over the line.

* * *

On the bridge of the Minerva Abby looked confused, as did Talia.

"What did you just..." The communications officer asked.

"The Sword Silhouette! Now! Get it to follow the Destiny's commands!" Shinn ordered over the line, Talia turning to the blonde teenager.

"Do it. Now that Lunas... gone... she won't be using it." Talia ordered.

"Yes ma'am!" Abby replied. The camera now cuts to the central catapult of the Minerva to show it open up and then inside the hanger to show the Sword Silhouette being raised up the lift, and then launched from the ship.

"Make sure they don't shoot it down. Arthur, that's an order!" Talia ordered.

"Launchers two and four, fire!" Arthur yelled as the Minerva fired more missiles.

* * *

The Destiny could be seen racing around the Strike Freedom and METEOR while firing off shots from it's beam rifle, Kira dodging with incredible skill as the Strike Freedom's console began to beep.

"What? That?" Kira said as he noticed the Sword Silhouette closing in on the Destiny and fired missiles.

"No you don't!" Shinn said as he put his beam rifle on his back skirt and fired both his hand cannons at the missiles, intercepting them as he closed in on the Silhouette. When he reached it he quickly fired off another blast from his palms and grabbed the beam boomerangs and threw them. Kira dodged the blasts as he attempted to hit the Destiny and Sword Silhouette with a downward vertical slash with the METEOR's left arm as the two boomerangs closed in and cut off the beam cannons on the back sides of the machine. When the slash was finished the Silhouette pack was destroyed however Shinn had ripped both of the MMI-710 "Excalibur" anti-ship swords from the pack and had gotten away in the nick of time. "AHH!" He yelled as he came at the Strike Freedom with both of the swords, one in each arms and pushed the Destiny to it's limit.

"Did you honestly expect my sister to just bow down and die to your 'Lunamaria'? Do you not think that she, as a human being who values her own life would have tried her hardest not to give up and just die? I'm sorry that Lunamaria died, I really am." Kira said as the Strike Freedom and Destiny clashed blades, the Destiny holding one of the Swords in it's right hand and swinging it down as the METEOR blocked the attack, at the same time Kira swung with the other arm of the METEOR, but now Shinn blocked with the other massive anti-ship sword. "It's just like the battle were having right now. Neither of us is going to back down and let the other just kill them, and that's the same thing that happened to my sister and this Lunamaria girl! It's the way every battle is played!" Kira yelled as the Destiny seemed to be able to literally go toe to toe with the METEOR unit with the Impulse's swords, however at the same time Kira was not in SEED mode, and Shinn was.

"Which is why we need to end war..." Shinn said as the Destiny took a swing with it's left arm. "FOREVER! THAT'S WHAT I'M TRYING TO DO!" He said as he cut off the right arm of the METEOR with that swing, backed off, and then raised the Destiny's arms and made an 'x' shape as Kira swung down full force with the METEOR's other arm.

"Yes and how many people are you going to have to enslave to enforce the Destiny plan? How many? The people are not going to just back down and have your Chairman tell them how to live their lives! They'll refuse to just take orders like that! People value their freedom!" Kira yelled as he fired missiles, Shinn breaking away as Kira also fired the beam cannon in the left arm of the METEOR, Shinn dodging barely as he evaded and combined the two swords together, used his free hand to shoot down missiles, and then closed in on the METEOR.

"I think they would give up their freedom, if it meant that they could know their Destiny and live in peace! Without war to break apart and utterly shatter their lives!" Shinn weaved his way towards the METEOR has be broke apart the Swords again and then whipped them at the Strike Freedom directly from a semi-close range.

Kira groaned as a violet SEED shattered in his eyes, activating his SEED mode and trying to get away from the MMI-710 "Excalibur" anti-ship swords as they closed in, but it way not enough. The Strike Freedom itself was spared a direct his, but one of the swords hit the METEOR in it's engines and the other right in the middle of one of the missile launchers. The Ultimate Coordinator then noticed the Destiny unfolding it's massive beam cannon and fire it, hitting the unit dead in it's center because the damaged engines didn't allow him to move. With all those parts hit the METEOR unit exploded and created a massive pink blast cloud.

"I... I did it. Rey... I just swept away the ghost of the past..." Shinn chuckled to himself before the Destiny's console beeped. "What the!" Shinn then dodged out of the way of the beam blast by literally a hair as the Strike Freedom gundam emerged from the blast, it's wings of light activated as it's DRAGOONs raced around the Destiny, surrounding it. "Huh! SHIT!" Shinn said as he began to dodge the incoming DRAGOON fire as the Strike Freedom opened fire on him, the Destiny's wings of light allowing him to evade.

"Listen, I'm not going to back down and let you just enslave all of humanity. In the last war one man sought to end all of humanity, and I stopped him. As far as I'm concerned, you're trying to do the exact same! I WON'T ALLOW IT! I will fight you!" Kira yelled as the Strike Freedom recalled all of it's DRAGOONs and pulled out it's beam sabers as it engaged the Destiny in melee combat.

"How the hell am I trying to end humanity? I'm trying to save humanity!" Shinn said as the Destiny kicked the Strike Freedom and then attempted to slice it in half with his large anti-ship sword, Kira raising his arms and blocking with his beam shields as he deployed his DRAGOONs, forcing Shinn to back away and dodge the fire has he pulled out his beam rifle and tried to shoot them down, Kira's ability to manage his DRAGOONs far exceeding Cagalli's, making it more difficult.

"Because... you're taking away a large aspect of what makes us human, our free will. I'm not talking about ending humanity in the sense that everyone would die..." Kira said as he combined his beam rifles and shot at Shinn, the pilot of the Destiny narrowly dodging the blast before firing back at Kira. "I'm talking about ending humanity in a sense that we won't be able to live like were humans anymore... only that we'd be forced to obey our genetic code! And I should know best that something like that is not a good thing!" Kira said as the DRAGOONs continued their assault on the Destiny. In the cockpit of that suit you could see Shinn concentrating very hard as he swerved to avoid a beam shot as he aimed his rifle.

"NOW!" The FAITH pilot yelled as he fired his beam rifle, taking out a DRAGOON before answering Kira. "And what the hell makes you such a high and mighty authority on such a matter?" Shinn asked.

"Because... my very existence... is the product of genetic enhancement... performed to the extent that has never been done before. I never asked to become the Ultimate Coordinator, and in fact I'd say it's more of a curse at time. Yet you so arrogantly think I should be a slave to something that I have no control over!" Kira said as he unleashed a full burst on the Destiny, Shinn raising his beam shields in an attempt to block the attack, the Destiny being thrown back.

"AHHHH!" Shinn said as he tried to regain control, his eyes becomes cold and concentrated as he unfolded his beam cannon and fired at the Freedom, Kira then firing his chest cannon at the Destiny, the two shots collided and cancelled each other out. "Whatever, that's just you. You're one single case. You still never answered me as to why my family and Stella died!" Shinn said as he dodged more DRAGOON fire and took out another one of the Strike Freedom's DRAGOONs, bringing the count down to six as Kira recalled the remaining ones back as the two suits engaged in beam rifle fire, Kira and Shinn both grunting as they either dodged or used their beam shields to counter each others blasts. As the two pilots engaged each other in battle however, the two suits drifted closer to the Eternal, and Lacus had a worried look on her face as she saw Kira fight Shinn.

* * *

The Archangel fired a barrage of ship to ship missiles at the Minerva, the grey ship shooting them down due to the CIWS on that side of it being undamaged and creating a cloud of smoke before the Archangel followed up with shot from its remaining Gottfried, taking out the Minerva's port side Tristan before the starboard Tristan fired, taking out the Archangel's last Gottfried. The Archangel's bow now faced to the Minerva's port side as the grey vessel turn to it's port.

"Forty to port! Activate Lohengrin One and Two!" Captain Murrue Ramius ordered. The Archangel then opened the two doors on the bottom of it's 'feet' and turned to it's left as the legendary white and red vessel prepared to fire it's most powerful weapons on the opposing ship.

* * *

"The Archangel has activated is charging it's positron cannons!" Bart warned his Captain. Talia looked a little stunned before she gave out orders.

"Evade! Raise bow forty five degrees! All starboard side launchers fire and take out the Archangel's port side cannon! Now or we're finished!" The Captain of the Minerva ordered as her helmsman began raised the ship's bow as fast as he he could. Outside the Minerva fired missiles from all the tubes on it's starboard side as the ship sharply turned upwards.

* * *

"FIRE!" Murrue Ramius ordered, but then was shook in her chair, her chest bouncing as the missiles from the Minerva took out the port side Lohengrin, however, the starboard side positron cannon was unharmed and fired it's anti-matter blast at the smaller grey and red vessel. It looked as if the Minerva was going to take a direct hit to it's bow however in a nick of time the ship raised itself up and the blast went under it and missed it barely, but missed it enough to not deal any damage. As the blast dissipated Talia began to give orders for a counter attack.

* * *

"Lower bow forty and swing ninety to starboard! Activate Tannhauser!" The blonde haired Captain ordered as the Minerva then quickly began to swing to face the Archangel, it's bow shutter opening as its positron cannon came forth and activated.

* * *

"She's firing back. The Minerva's preparing to fire it's positron cannon!" Dalida ordered to the Archangel's bridge crew.

"Hard to port! Evade! Neumann!" Murrue ordered. Inside the hanger bay you could see what was left of the Akatsuki, the GOUF, and the ZAKU all docked, Dearka and Yzak helping Cagalli walk to the bridge considering she was kind of weak after he battle with Shinn and last second save of Yzak. The ship then violently shook as it turned to evade the Minerva's positron cannon.

* * *

"Tannhauser, fire!" Talia Gladys ordered as the Minerva fired its bow cannon at the Archangel, the older ship just barely able to also dodge the blast as it blitzed behind it. The Minerva was now heading right towards the area directly behind the Archangel as it finished it's turn, the white ship's stern facing the grey ship's starboard.

"Captain?" Arthur asked.

'We've got them.' Talia thought. "Target their engines! Isolde, Tristans, fire!" Talia ordered as the Minerva fired it's triple artillery gun and it's starboard side double beam cannon directly at the Archangel's engines.

* * *

"Valiants, fire. All Helldarts, fire!" Murrue ordered. The Archangel fired both of it's Valiants at the Minerva, one of the blasts hitting the starboard side engine and the other hitting the Tannhauser which had yet to be retracted into it's shutter. The missiles from the Archangel hit the Minerva's Isolde and Tristan just after they fired. Shortly after both vessels fired their blasts they shook as they hit each other, the crippling damage being dealt.

"Engines two through five are damaged. Sealing all bulkheads in that area!" Dalida informed as the Archangel began to descend towards the lunar surface, all sorts of warning lights and sounds going off.

"Thrust is decreasing! Captain, we're done! We're going to crash!" Neumann announced as he fiddled with the Archangel's navigation controls, manipulating the two remaining larger engines and several smaller engines on the back of the ship and the back of the legs in order to have the ship land in the least damaging way. While he did, Murrue had a worried and sort of angry look on her face.

"All hands brace for impact!" The Archangel's Captain picked up her phone and announced to everyone on the ship.

* * *

"Main starboard side thrusters destroyed! Ma'am we've lost attitude control!" Malik nearly yelled.

"Tannhauser has suffered a direct hit! FCS is down Captain!" Bart announced as Talia gritted her teeth.  
"Everyone hold on tight!" Talia ordered. The Minerva then began to tilt to it's right and descend. The Archangel crashed on the lunar surface area that was ahead of it as the Valiants were destroyed due to rubble hitting them. The Minerva crashed a little distance to the left of it, both ships now unable to fight each other due to the damage they had taken as their crews recovered from the crash, the Captains looking out their windows at the other ship, looking as if they were staring at each other from their bridges.

'Well... done...' Talia thought, giving a little salute.

* * *

'Captain Gladys...' Murrue said in her head as she did the same.

* * *

"Dammit I am not going to let you interfere once again and stop me! Every time you've interfered you've caused nothing good to come of it! The battle at the Dardanelles, the battle at Crete, and the battle of Berlin!" Shinn yelled as the Destiny avoided the Strike Freedom's DRAGOONs and then closed in on him and clashed blades with Kira once again.

"The battle of Berlin? Are you insane? Whoever was piloting that... thing... had done enough damage in such a short amount of time that they should be considered one of the world's worst mass murderers! She had to be stopped! It had to happen!" Kira said as the Strike Freedom pulled away with it's right hand, deactivated the beam saber and then punched the Destiny in the face. As Shinn was pushed back he swung down with the Arondight, Kira attempting to dodge the hit, However at the same time the tip of the blade hit the beam saber in the Strike Freedom's left hand just below the emitter, taking out that weapon as Kira threw it away and ordered his DRAGOONs to continue their assault, Shinn dodging and firing back with his palm cannons, the DRAGOONs evading every shot.

"I had her under control! She was going to be okay!" Shinn yelled as he readied his massive beam cannon and fired at Kira.

"No you didn't. That machine was preparing to kill you when I stepped in! AHHH!" Kira yelled as the beam shot hit his beam shield and pushed him back, causing the Strike Freedom to pushed around like what the Legend did when Rey hit Kira with all his DRAGOONs in the battle of ORB.

"DIE!" Shinn said as he was about to fire his beam cannon again, sealing the deal when one of the Strike Freedom's DRAGOONs shot at his beam cannon, causing him to have to avoid the shot and mess up on his aim. "Damn you!" Shinn quickly turned to face the direction that DRAGOON was coming from, a look of concentration in his eyes as he fired his Palma Fiocina at the DRAGOON, the shot taking it out. Before he knew it Kira was in his face again with his remaining beam saber, hoping to get in some damage as the last five DRAGOONs belonging to the Strike Freedom being called back.

"The point is you killed her! You killed her... and now I'll never be able to see her again! Do you know that feeling? DO YOU KNOW THAT FEELING?" Shinn yelled as the Strike Freedom raised it's right arm and swung down, the Destiny blocking the hit by raising it's sword with its left hand as the right attempted to go after the Strike Freedom's head, a glow seen in it's palm.

"Yes I know that feeling perfectly well. I KNOW THAT FEELING MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE!" Kira yelled as he remembered when Flay was killed by Rau Le Creuset as the Strike Freedom avoided having it's head blown off but instead the Destiny damaged the last DRAGOON that was on the Strike Freedom's left wing, Kira launching that pod off before it exploded.

"I guess then you should be on my side. You should emphasize with me over how that feels like, when you try to save someone but another person comes in and takes them away from you forever!" Shinn yelled as he heard a beeping sound on his console and moved away from the Strike Freedom, Kira pulling away too as missiles passed by them and both pilots used their ranged weaponry to avoid it.

"The Eternal? Lacus?" Kira thought as he saw where those missiles had come from, but the noticed the Destiny heading right for the pink vessel. "STOP!" Kira yelled as he attempted to go after the Destiny, but due to the other suit's wings of light the Strike Freedom simply wasn't fast enough.

"Evade! Hard to starboard! All missile launchers fire!" Andrew Waltfeld ordered.

"How dare you!" Shinn said as the Destiny pulled out its beam rifle and avoided more incoming missiles, strafing to the left before turning around and firing a few well placed shots, taking them out before he blocked fire from the Eternal's main cannon before he fired another shot, taking out that turret.

"Lacus!" Kira yelled as the Destiny appeared right before the Eternal's bridge, its beam rifle drawn and prepared to fire. "NOO!" Kira yelled.

"Huh... Ki...Kira..." Lacus held her breathe as the Destiny prepared to fire it's beam rifle, time seeming to slow in that area as the green blast charged, one of the bridge crewman ducking for their life whilst simultaneously hitting the button that would detach the remaining METEOR from the Eternal...

The Destiny's beam rifle was just mere milliseconds from firing when a green blast shot through the grey gun and destroyed it, sparing the Eternal.

"Lacus... phew..." Kira said. However, in the cockpit of the Destiny, Shinn had an evil smile on his face.

"I knew you would do that." Shinn said as he remembered when the Freedom destroyed the beam rifle belonging to the Murasume that was just about the destroy the Minerva's bridge in the battle of Crete. "Which is why I had a backup plan. YOU TOOK AWAY STELLA FROM ME, I TAKE AWAY HER FROM YOU!" The camera then cuts to show the Destiny's left hand, which had charged it's Palma Fiocina behind it's back and away from where Kira could see it before it brung it fourth and fired the blast directly into the Eternal's bridge, a very shocked Lacus scared for her life as the bright blue blast pierced the glass on the front of the bridge, the energy reaching her and annihilating her body and killing everyone on board the Eternal as the Destiny moved away. The small and pink colored vessel blowing up in a massive explosion. Although the Eternal was destroyed, one could not fail to notice the other METEOR as it drifted off on its own.

"LACUS!" Kira yelled when the Eternal was destroyed, three purple mobile suits rushing past him.

"You killed Lady Lacus! You'll pay!" Hilda Harken, pilot of one of the three ZGMF-XX09T DOM Troopers yelled as she closed in on the Destiny. "No stop!" Kira yelled to the three of them.

"Master Kira, what is it?" One of the three pilots asked.

"He's mine. You'll die if you face him. I'll handle him." A look in Kira's eyes could be seen as the Strike Freedom held a beam rifle in each arm and deployed it's remaining four DRAGOONs as it rushed at the Destiny.

"I'll take you on. Right here, right now!" Shinn said as the Destiny activated it's wings of light as it unsheathed it's anti-ship sword and dodged DRAGOON fire.

"You know that feeling when someone has just been taken away from you? That's what you just did to me!" Kira yelled as he combined his beam rifle together and took a shot at Shinn. In conjunction with the DRAGOON fire incoming, the Destiny took a hit to it's left foot as Shinn blasted another one of the Strike Freedom's DRAGOONs to bits with his palm cannon emitter.

"Then I guess it's payback! I just got my revenge! Considering you didn't die when I killed your last suit!" Shinn said as unfolded his beam cannon and fired at the Strike Freedom, Kira strafing to the right and dodging.

"Revenge? REVENGE? How sick are you. In revenge you'll only find a never ending chain of people killing other people because they killed someone else. That chain... is a viscous cycle." Kira said as he fired both of his beam rifles, his chest cannon, and his two Rail guns at the Destiny, Shinn rising up and dodging. "Tell me... how exactly did your family die? What happened that day?" Kira asked as he tried to manoeuvre the last three DRAGOONs of the Strike Freedom out of the way, Shinn blowing up one of them. The pilot of the Destiny looked shocked as he remembered what happened.

"I lived in ORB my entire life. I believed in it's ideals. However, when the day came that they would be put to the test came, they failed, and me and my family paid the price. We... we we're running when the evacuation of ORB was happening. My sister dropped her mobile phone... and tried to stop us so she could get it..." Shinn blocked another beam shot with his shield. "I quickly ran after it, and when I reached it... I was knocked away by a blast. When I found them... they were all dead." Shinn had a tear in his eyes. Kira had a look of pure sadness on his face and closed his eyes for a second and clenched his fists as he recalled the remaining two DRAGOONs back.

"I see. That's very sad. One minute you were with them, and the next minute they were gone..." Kira said, however he heard Shinn yell at him once again.

"AND SO THAT'S WHY I NEED TO END WAR FOREVER! FOR THEM! THEY DIED FOR NO GOOD REASON! IN EVERY WAR THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE DIE! THAT'S WHY WAR MUST END! THAT'S WHY THE CHAIRMAN IS DOING THIS!" Shinn yelled as he threw one of the Destiny's beam boomerangs, taking out the last two DRAGOONs before the boomerang returned to the ZGMF-X42S Destiny. In the cockpit of the Strike Freedom you could see Kira thinking.

'Such a sad tale. But at the same time... I can't help but feel that he's only doing this because he's been convinced it's the right thing to do. As if he lost his way after his family died and then... that's it!' Kira thought as the Strike Freedom, with it's wings of light flowing now that it's eight DRAGOONs had been destroyed sheathed it's two beam rifles and pulled out it's remaining beam saber and came at Shinn.

"You need to stop listening to other people and listen to yourself, Shinn!" Kira yelled.

"What the hell do you mean? What are you talking about?!" Shinn yelled as he pulled out both of his beam boomerangs and threw them at the Strike Freedom before preparing his anti-ship sword again.

"You lived in ORB for your entire life and you believed in it's ideals..." Kira swung his right hand, which contained his last beam saber, across his body, knocking away one of the Destiny's beam boomerangs. "When they failed you, you were broken. You didn't know what to think or who to believe, only that now you hated ORB." Kira said as the Strike Freedom used it's left hand and literally grabbed the other beam boomerang as it tried to hit his mobile suit, using the newly acquired weapon as another beam saber.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Shinn asked as the Destiny came at the Strike Freedom with it's Arondight sword in both hands, clashing blades with Kira as the two passed by each other.

"You believed in ORB. You loved that nation. You thought it's ideals would protect your family. However, due to an accident, they died. Believe me, I was there, fighting, that very day." Kira said as the two gundams blitzed by each other again. "However when they died you lost faith in ORB, and grew bitter. You hated that nation. However your hatred made you vulnerable." As the two gundams passed each other again the Strike Freedom cut off the lower half of the Destiny's right leg. "You're hatred made you vulnerable to influences. You followed the Chairman, and you followed the clone of Rau Le Creuset. You failed to think for yourself... ahhh..." Kira yelled when the two gundams passed by each other again, except this time the Arondight cut off the Strike Freedom's left arm, shoulder and wing. "And now you are here, ready to enslave humanity. To enforce the Destiny Plan on us all against our will, and to take away our Freedom." Kira said.

"Then I guess the names of our gundams are fitting then, Kira Yamato, Ultimate Coordinator." Shinn said.

"I guess so." Kira said as the two gundams passed by each other again, except this time the Strike Freedom managed to cut the Arondight at it's hilt, causing the blade to deactivate and fly off into the distance and explode, leaving Shinn without a melee weapon. "Give up. You don't have anything that can fight me up close, and my machine has more ranged firepower." Kira said.

"How dare you tell me to just give up!" Shinn screamed as the Destiny came at the Strike Freedom. Kira then fired his MGX-2235 "Calidus" Multi-Phase Beam Cannon at the other gundam and caused a massive explosion upon impact. It looked as if Shinn was not able to activate his shields in time but looks were deceiving...

"AHHH!" Shinn raged as the Destiny came out of the cloud of dust as fast as it could, the pilot of the Destiny activating his beam shields to block the chest cannon.

"What?" Kira asked as he tried to move away, but due to the wings of light on the Destiny he couldn't get away as the Destiny closed up on him, Shinn grabbing the Strike Freedom's beam saber out of hing hand forcibly before destroying the right hand before he proceeded to punch the gundam in the chest, causing Kira to be bounced around a little as the chest cannon was rendered unable to fire.

"To the ground with you!" Shinn then moved a little bit away from the Strike Freedom and then came at the gundam and kicked it in the head, causing to to be thrown to the lunar surface, Kira pushing the thrusters of the Strike Freedom to their maximum as the suit landed roughly on the rocky surface. The Destiny then came down and partially straddled (well it would if one of the legs wasn't missing) the Strike Freedom and raised the left hand with the beam saber it stole away and prepared to slash at the Strike freedom right in the cockpit. "ARRHHH!" Shinn swung downwards.

"I'm not done yet." Kira said as the Strike Freedom raised it's hand less right arm and activated the beam shield, blocking the Destiny from hitting it. "Tell me, Shinn. Tell me why you believe this Destiny plan should be put into place, considering it places people into positions based on their genes..."

"SHUT UP AND DIE!" Shinn yelled as he raised his arm again and swung down, but Kira raised his arm and blocked again, grunting as he did.

"No listen to me. I am the Ultimate Coordinator. By my father's sinful design I am theoretically superior to every other human being who has ever existed. Yet, at the same time, here we are. By all logic, I should have handed you your ass several minutes ago..." Kira chuckled a little. "... yet you've beaten me, Shinn. Not only once... but twice. You win... But at the same time you've debunked the Destiny Plan's premise..." Kira explained. Shinn had a surprised look on his face as he heard this.

"But..." The FAITH pilot tried to say.

"THINK for yourself. Is this really what you want? A world were people exist to take orders from others? THINK FOR YOURSELF WHILE YOU STILL CAN SHINN! DON'T BE A SLAVE TO DURANDAL'S LIES ANYMORE!" Kira yelled. In his head Shinn had a tear in his eyes. "Fine then, kill me and succeed in implementing your plan. It's not a world I'd want to live in anyway..." Kira said.

* * *

In Shinn's head he was now taken to a mysterious place. He was floating in what looked to be a Dream Nebula. All around him was what looked to be... space. Except their were splashes of pink, purple, yellow, and blue all around him, as if he was in an enchanted cloud, and everything looked to be 'glowing' in a sense. Shinn Asuka then looked at his hands, and noticed that he was naked. Then, three voices called out to him. Three very familiar voices.

"Shinn..." They all said. The boy looked surprised as he looked around, finding nothing.

"Who's there? Who the hell are you? Where am I?" He asked. He then heard the laugh of a young teenage girl.

"Shinn. You're fine. It's me, you're sister, Mayu." He turned around to see where the voice was coming from and saw his sister, looking exactly the same as what she did the day she died.

"Mayu... Sister! Where am I? Where's mom and dad?" Shinn asked with excitement as he saw his little sister, and tried to run towards her, but could not.

"Calm down, Shinn. You're not in any danger. It's all okay." Another female voice said as he turned to see a certain blonde girl named Stella Loussier, her body in a flight suit.

"Stella! Stella!" Shinn yelled.

"Don't forget about me, you handsome boy." The last female voice said as Shinn turned around to face the late Lunamaria Hawke who was wearing a flight suit.

"Luna... Luna... I'm so sorry I couldn't save you... I couldn't..." He cried.

"Shh.. It's alright now, Shinn." Lunamaria said.

"We've come to tell you the truth, so that you can make the correct decision." Stella said.

"Yes! Correct decision!" Mayu said as the three female 'spirits' moved so that they were standing shoulder to shoulder with Shinn facing them.

"What do you mean... why are you..." Shinn said, his face filled with confusement.

"Just shut up and let us explain already! Mayu, you go first." Lunamaria said. The little girl then spoke.

"Big brother, you grew to hate ORB after me and mommy and daddy died... but you shouldn't have. ORB... ORB is our home. Yes we died but at the same time... it was partially our fault... or rather, my fault for making such a fit over my mobile phone and tugging on mom. Whatever... it doesn't matter. I don't blame ORB for my death... they did what they could and so did we but it happened and there was nothing that could be done about it. So go out there and stop the meanie Durandal from destroying our true home!" Mayu ordered in a pouty tone.

"But... I'll never see you again! I miss you, little sister!" Shinn cried. "It's not fair!"

"Life... is not fair, brother. But no matter what, I know you'll remember me. I'll always be in your heart, big brother." Mayu said as she closed in on Shinn and put her hand over his heart, and disappear, her words 'I'll always be in your heart' echoing throughout the area.

"Mayu..." A tear slide down Shinn's eyes as he heard Stella's soft voice.

"Shinn... Shinn..." She said as he turned to face her. "I know I died... and to tell you the truth, the stories me and Luna are going to tell you kind of similar, but no matter what happens you must listen to us. You gave me back to Neo... and although they did save my life... I was told to pilot that monster of a machine and kill so many people 'or else the scary things would come and kill us all'. I did what I was told... and I suffered from it. I was never allowed to think for myself and make my own choices... and so I died. You on the other hand... you can make your own choice, and you should. So tell yourself if this plan is actually what the world needs... and act on it..." Stella said.

"Stella... but he killed you..." Shinn said.

"I... I... Shinn. At that point in time, it would have been unjust to not kill me considering the many people I have killed in my life for no good reason..." Stella said as she closed in on him and hugged him. "I love you..." She said as she disappeared, leaving only Lunamaria and Shinn left as Stella's words of 'I love you' echoed as Mayu's did.

"Luna! LUNA! I... I wasn't... fast enough..." Shinn said. The spirit of Lunamaria rolled her eyes.

"Calm down you big crybaby. Listen to me. I went after that Princess and tried to kill her, okay. I made it clear to her that I wasn't going to back down and that one of us was going to perish." Lunamaira explained.

"But why did you do that... WHY? YOU DIED!" Shinn yelled, tears rolling down his eyes.

"Because I loved you, Shinn. I did that because I loved you and I thought that you wanted to see ORB burn and see that Princess die. I thought you would want me to do that... and so I did that. I did all that because I loved you. I abandoned all logic and reason and just blindly listened to my emotions. I didn't think for myself. Yes it's true that while Stella did say our stories were similar there is a big difference. Stella was never given choices in her life. I was, and I made the wrong choice. And now I stand before you right now to tell you to make the right choice." Lunamaria said.

"The right... choice...?" Shinn asked.

"Yes. Make the right choice, Shinn. You have the power to do that." She closed in on him. "You have the freedom to choose your own destiny." Lunamaria kissed him and disappeared, her line of 'You have the freedom to choose your own destiny' ringing around him as Shinn felt himself be pulled out of the area he was in.

* * *

The pilot of the Destiny opened his eyes. Around him he was still 'battling' the Strike Freedom, but then he deactivated the beam saber and got off the Strike Freedom.

"Huh...?" Kira said.

"I'm not going to kill you. I've made my choice. I no longer support the Destiny Plan. I'm on your side now..." Shinn said. Kira smiled a little in his cockpit as the Strike Freedom got back up on it's two feet and then floated in space.

"Well... what do we do now?" Shinn asked. Kira, who pressed some buttons on his console, Shinn doing the same.

"Archangel, do you read me? What's happening? Archangel, respond!" Kira said.

"Minerva this is Shinn. What's our situation. I'm sorry to tell you this... but... I'm not fighting for Zaft anymore. It's over. This plan cannot work." Shinn said. Kira was the first to get a response.

"Kira... it's Captain Ramius. We're in less than stellar shape right now... we can't support you however the rest of the ORB forces are breaking though." Murrue said. Kira gave off a sigh or relief.

"Shinn we've been defeated. The Minerva has crashed, and our forces around Reqieum have been defeated. I don't blame you, it's over." Talia responded to the FAITH pilot.

"Right then... me an... a friend are heading back." Shinn said as he looked at Kira, the Ultimate Coordinator smiling as the two machines headed began to head back.

* * *

The force consisting of defected Zaft and Alliance vessels had just broken through the Zaft forces and had reached the Requiem. On board an Agamemnon-class carrier you could see an Alliance Captain give some orders as the fleet reached the massive weapon.

"Main cannons, fire!" He ordered as the vessels opened fire with their beam cannons at the massive barrel of Requiem. However, before the blasts hit a blue shield appeared over the hole and protected it.

"What?" The Captain said in surprise, his bridge crew looking shocked.

"Captain, there's an extremely large objected approaching from orange one eight six." The man who was at the ship's communications console said.

* * *

"A fortress? How the..." Murrue Ramius said about the crashed Archangel as everyone saw something approach from over the horizon.

* * *

"The Messiah fortress..." Talia said softly on the Minerva's bridge.

* * *

"Messiah is declaring a battle alert. Condition red. I repeat: Messiah is declaring a battle alert!" A voice echoed throughout the massive asteroid fortress. Inside the control room Gilbert Durandal sat in his chair with his hands crossed and a smug look of satisfaction on his face.

"Activating all offensive options."

"Neo GENESIS, firing angle set. Output at 90%."

"After clearing the cannon's mouth, we'll annihilate ORB and bring this bloody conflict to an end." Durandal said, the people in the control room nodding their heads.

"Awaiting your order to fire, Chairman."

"Fire." Durandal said coldly. Outside the structure, a massive disk structure fired a beam that collided with a mirror in front of it and caused the beam to reflect back onto the disk, which then glowed a very hot orange as an enormous ray of gamma ray energy was fired.

* * *

"Engines to maximum! Evade!" A man aboard a random ship ordered.

"Sir we're not going to make it!" Another person said as the gamma ray beam passed in front of the maw of the Requiem and obliterated everything in it's path, including several more Zaft ships that went and engaged the rebel fleet.

* * *

"NO! That was the Molbase and the Britain!" Arthur nearly screamed from inside the bridge of the Minerva. Talia Gladys had an extremely shocked look on her face.

'Gilbert... how could you.' The Captain of the Minerva thought.

* * *

"Captain, what are we going to do?" Cagalli asked as she, Yzak and Dearka went onto the bridge.

"Cagalli, there's nothing... that we can do right now. However... there are two out there that can do something..." Murrue said.

"What the? They built another GENESIS?" Kira said as the Strike Freedom and Destiny stopped moving. "I need to go... and stop them!" Kira yelled as he tried to thrust forward, but Shinn stopped him.

"No. You can't. You're machine is to badly damaged right now." Shinn said.

"But..." Kira said.

"GIVE ME THOSE WEAPONS! I'M GOING TO MAKE THEM PAY!" Shinn yelled as he pulled the beam rifles off of the Strike Freedom's hips and pushed Kira. "Now go! Get back to your ship! That's... an order!" Shinn said as the Destiny activated it's wings of light and went towards the Requiem, carrying one of the Strike Freedom's beam rifles in each of his hands. Three mobile suits then came close to him, but couldn't keep up. "What the?"

"I know you've... killed Lacus..." Hilda said from her DOM.

"But if you let Kira live..." Mars said.

"And are going after that thing..." Herbert added.

"Then we'll cover you! Go on ahead!" They all said to him. Shinn smiled and went onwards, shooting at incoming mobile suits that were in his way but not stopping. Some mobile suits did come close to shooting down the Destiny as it ignored them but they were quickly taken care of thanks to the three DOM pilots.

"Thank you..." Shinn said as he closed in on Daedalus.

* * *

Messiah Control Room:

"Station Two. Firing angle set."

"Requiem, activate. Preparing to fire, targeting the ORB Union."

"T Minus thirty seconds until we can fire."

"Fire Requiem as soon as you can. Let's finish this." Durandal said with a stone face.

"Yes sir!"

'Checkmate... ORB.' The Chairman of the PLANTs thought.

* * *

"I guess... ORB is finished then..." Cagalli said on the bridge of the fallen Archangel before someone opened a communications line.

"No... It isn't. Guys I'm heading back." Kira said as the Strike Freedom headed back towards the Archangel.

"What? Wow... Kira... Why isn't ORB finished?" Cagalli asked.

"Because... Shinn is out there right now... and he's going to stop Durandal. I know it." Kira said. Cagalli was extremely shocked when she heard this.

"SHINN? That brat? You're joking, right?" Cagalli asked, clenching her fists.

"No Cagalli. I'm not joking." Kira said as the Strike Freedom entered the Archangel's port side hanger door.

* * *

"AHHH!" Shinn said as the Destiny fired it's beam rifles at incoming ZAKUs and GOUFs, taking them out. "Out of my way!" He said as he blazed passed several enemys, which tried to shoot him but where shot down by the three DOM pilots.

"JET STREAM ATTACK!" The three of them yelled as they activated their G14X3IZ "Screaming Nimbus" Scattering Beam Guns and smashed their way through the remaining Zaft mobile suits that came from Messiah to guard the Requiem.

"Preparing to fire in fifteen seconds." A man in Messiah's control room said as energy began to gather in the chamber of the massive laser.

"There it is! I hope I'm not slow enough!" Shinn said as he pushed the Destiny gundam as fast as it could go and entered the barrel of the Requiem cannon, breaking through the shield.

"Countdown: T Minus ten seconds."

"Dammit! I've got to get a little closer to the gun so that the shot hits!" Shinn yelled as he closed in.

"T Minus five seconds."

"Now to end this!" Shinn said as the Destiny combined both of the Strike Freedom's two MA-M21KF Beam Rifles into the giant beam rifle, held it in his right hand, activated the Destiny's massive beam cannon and held it in his left hand, and then fired both weapons directly at the exposed Requiem cannon.

* * *

"Now, fire Requiem." Chairman Durandal ordered from inside Messiah's control room. A random person at a console hit a big red button, but something went wrong.

"Sir, something's wrong with the Requiem! Oh no!"

"What is it?" Durandal asked in a loud tone. "What is the meaning of this?"

"It's been hit!"

Outside the barrel you could see the Destiny gundam just barely leap out of the line of fire as the destroyed Requiem cannon fired off a blast of pure flames, indicating that it had been destroyed and that ORB was safe. Inside the cockpit of the Destiny Shinn was panting as he held onto the massive beam rifle from the Strike Freedom, his own beam cannon now folded up and stored in the Destiny's backpack.

"The... the fools!" Durandal said with a purely surprised look on his face, but then turned angry and clenched his fists.

"What is the name of the mobile suit that did that? Is it that god forsaken Freedom?" He demanded an answer, but would be surprised by what he would get.

"Sir you're not going to believe this. Thermal patterns identified as ZGMF-X42S Destiny!"

"WHAT?" The Chairman yelled. 'Why would Shinn Asuka of all people do something like this. It doesn't matter... with their forces dismantled they cannot hope to stop me.' Durandal thought. "Open a communications on all frequencies at maximum range. I am going to address everyone on this battlefield."

"Yes sir!" An officer said as he pressed some buttons on his control panel. Before to long an image of Durandal came up on the screens of every ship, mobile suit, and mobile armor that was taking place in the battle.

"I am Chairman Gilbert Durandal of the PLANTs. ORB forces, despite your best efforts, I am now telling you to admit defeat and give up. Even though Requiem has been destroyed, this fortress still stands and you have no way of defeating it. Your fleet has taken too much damage as of right now, and your flagship has crashed into the lunar surface. I await your surrender. It's for the good of humanity that the Destiny Plan come to fruition." Durandal addressed everyone. On the bridge of the Archangel you could see Cagalli clench her fists as Kira stood next to her, Murrue's face filled with awe as she saw this.

* * *

"Dammit! That bastard!" Shinn slammed his fist on the Destiny's console, but then was contacted.

"You! Gundam that destroyed the Eternal! Take this!" Hilda Harken said as the three DOM soldiers seemed to be bringing something towards the Destiny. It was the other METEOR unit from the Eternal, and despite the fact that the ship was destroyed, the unit was relatively unscathed. "Use this... and defeat Chairman Durandal."

"Why are you helping me? I killed your leader!" Shinn said.

"We know! At the same time though before this battle took place Miss Lacus told us to stop the Destiny Plan from coming to completion at any and all costs. You need to stop them now, and you'll need this!" The female pilot informed.

"Since my mobile suit is from the Eternal itself I was able to reconfigure it to accept your mobile suit." Mars said as the Destiny headed for the METEOR unit, Shinn pressing several buttons on his console in order to engage the docking mechanism. It seemed that since the Destiny's 'frame' was designed in a similar fashion to the Strike Freedom's that it would be able to dock with the device as well. The wings of the mobile suit lifted up and moved out of the way as the Destiny became one with the METEOR. On Shinn's screen he saw '**M**obile suit **E**mbedded **T**actical **E**nf**or**cer (METEOR)' come up and tell him about some of the system's specs.

"Time to end this! Time to undo all the wrongs I've done!" Shinn yelled as the Destiny and METEOR device flew off towards the Messiah Space Fortress.

* * *

"Incoming mobile suit! It's the Destiny!" One of Messiah's screens showed an image of the incoming Destiny gundam as it fired it's beam cannon and slashed with it's swords, taking out mobile suits and ships as it headed for the station.

'Of all the people... no matter... he'll listen to me after a firm talking to.' Durandal thought. "I want all hands to abandon Messiah right now. That's an order! Let that pilot make his way to the bridge. I will deal with him personally..." Durandal said as he reached for a hand held gun in his pocket.

* * *

The Destiny unleashed a full barrage from all of the 77 missile launchers on the METEOR unit at Messiah, hitting several places on it and damaging the Neo GENESIS mirror as it began to cut the large metal rings surrounding the fortress. From a distance you could see the path of destruction being made by Shinn along Messiah's outer perimeter as the suit then proceeded to head inside the asteroid, his targeting computer showing him lock onto many different areas of the station's interior.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Shinn yelled as his fired all of the METEOR's weapons inside the Zaft fortresses interior, causing incalculable and unrepairable damage to the station. Outside you could see the giant rock begin to sink and blow up.

* * *

Minerva bridge:

"Captain! Messiah is..." Arthur said in a voice filled with anxiety. The Captain of the Minerva sighed.

"Our battle is over. All hands abandon ship. Send out signal flares indication are intention to abandon the Minerva." Talia ordered, a crew member nodding as the crashed vessel sent out three blue flares. A couple seconds later they saw the Archangel do the same.

"Ma'am. We're getting a message from one of the nearby ORB Izumo-class vessels. They're willing to take our crew aboard." Abby informed. Talia turned.

"Tell them it's appreciated. Arthur, see it that everyone get's aboard that ship. We're leaving." Talia ordered.

"Y... Yes ma'am!" The Executive Officer said as he saluted his Captain.

* * *

The elevator door that led to Messiah's Bridge opened up and Shinn Asuka walked forward, his helmet off and collar undone on his flight suit. The room looked pretty messed up, as if several explosions took place. In the center placed on a platform sat a long chair that swivelled around and revealed Chairman Gilbert Durandal, who then stood up and faced Shinn.

"I have to admit I'm actually very surprised. I was expecting the Freedom and Kira Yamato to be the ones to bring down Messiah and the for the Ultimate Coordinator to stand before me right now. Instead, I have you, an ace pilot who I trusted." Durandal said. Shinn simply raised one arm that had a gun in it at the Chairman as he said nothing. "Oh, I see. However are you certain that's the best solution?" Durandal asked as he raised a gun to Shinn. "You can't do this. We're so close Shinn. So close to meeting our goal of ending war forever!"

"By ending war forever you mean forcing people to conform to the most idealistic plan ever conceived?" Shinn asked.

"I am not exaggerating Shinn. If you kill me you will be condemning this world to darkness and chaos, never to see the light of day again." Durandal said.

"I disagree with you. I'd say you're the one who wants to condemn the world. I want to see it free. We live in a world where everyone can chose to change their path... to make the right choices. I see now why that bastard Athun switched sides so much, although I'd never do what he did to the extent that he did."

"So why did you decide to change your mind anyway, Shinn?" Durandal asked, a serious look on his face.

"Your plan revolves around humans being completely and utterly stripped of any sense of freedom or choice in their life and instead being forced to live their live based upon their genes." Shinn said with an angry look, his finger just waiting to pull the trigger.

"Yes. Magnificent, don't you think? And just what the world needs."

"Then tell me how I was able to defeat the Ultimate Coordinator. Tell me how I was able to bring a man who's genes are supposedly superior to my own to his knees, Chairman!" Shinn demanded.

'He defeated Kira Yamato?' Durandal thought. "I can't explain that. However I will tell you right now that if the Destiny Plan is allowed to come to fruition war will end. That tragic element that killed your family, all the people you've loved that died? It will no longer exist."

"That's what you say. However I see you having to kill far to many people in the process to justify such an action. Humanity will defend it's liberty to the bitter end. And even if you manage to enforce such a plan I don't see it lasting. Every attempt that humanity has ever made to end war forever throughout it's entire history has failed at one point or another. No plan is perfect..." Shinn said as Durandal could be seen with an increasingly angry look on his face. "... but then again... no human is perfect, and we should never expect to overcome our imperfection. Ideal concepts such as yours never consider the human factor: How people act." Shinn said.

"If people are told their pre-determined destiny before hand I think they will agree to follow it, knowing what will happen. I think that's a fair price." Durandal said, his finger about to pull the trigger, and Shinn noticing this.

"Chairman Durandal, I don't believe that in destiny there is no freedom..." A gunshot was heard as someone pulled the trigger. "I believe we all have the freedom to choose our destiny." Shinn finished as the body of Gilbert Durandal fell to the floor, a gunshot wound in his chest and his gun on the ground. "You made your choice, and that's fine. However when you decide to make the choice for others and enforce it on them, killing them if they disagree... then that's the very definition of war itself. So no... you will not end war forever." Shinn said as he walked towards the elevator and pressed the button on it as the door closed.

* * *

"It's falling!" Murrue said on board the bridge of the ORB ship that picked the Archangel crew up, some of the bridge crew of the Minerva standing their too.

"Where's... Shinn?" Talia asked in a worried tone. Everyone looked out the front window at the burning fortress.

"Look! There he is!" Kira said as he pointed to something glowing near Messiah. The camera cuts up close to see the Destiny gundam leaving Messiah with it's wings of light activated as it blitzed through the sky. Inside you could see Shinn with a look of sorts on his face as the Destiny turned around and faced Messiah after gaining a safe distance. The massive fortress hit the lunar surface and began to fall on it's side, burning as it landed.

'It's done. Time to go back home and start anew.' Shinn thought as he witnessed Messiah burn in the lunar surface, the Destiny Plan and Gilbert Durandal dying with the space station.


	5. Final Plus

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam SEED/Gundam Seed Destiny

* * *

"So, what do you think is going to happen now, Cagalli?" Kira asked as he and his sister walked down down one of the beautiful beaches in ORB, together, in the evening. The battle had been won... ORB had been spared, although it was not ORB itself that had been the one to win the battle. It was Shinn Asuka who was responsible for crushing the Destiny Plan and raining on Chairman Gilbert Durandal's radical ambitions. However at the same time, he did not take to kindly to being the hero. After Messiah fell he found that both the Archangel and Minerva had crashed, and that he himself was being ordered, by his very Captain, to board an ORB vessel that was cruising nearby. When the hero of the Second Bloody Valentine War boarded the ship he did not take too kindly to the applause he was receiving. He simply asked the ORB crew soldiers for a room on the ship, and was guided to one. He never even left the room even once, and when the vessel made it's way to Earth he ran out of it as soon as it made it's way to the shore and didn't turn back, not even once. Captain Gladys, who Shinn respected, wasn't even able to get him to stop. The pilot of the Destiny ran from everyone, and wasn't found for the rest of the day. The time that Kira and Cagalli are walking on the beach is in the evening of the day that the ORB vessel landed on the island nation.

"Well the PLANTs will need to put a new Chairman into power. However I think this time they will pass legislation to restrict the Chairman's power. After the first two wars... I can say that's something they may do. As for ORB itself... I'll be taking the reins. I'll put the country back together the way it's supposed to and guide ORB how it's meant to be guided. I owe my people that much after what's happened." Cagalli said as she and Kira approached a familiar land mark.

"I understand. This time you won't have those Seirans to deal with, Cagalli." Kira said as they rounded the corner.

"Yes... the rest of the ministers are rather..." She stopped speaking as she saw something. "Kira... the memorial..." Cagalli said.

"There's someone there... could it be...?" Kira said as he noticed what looked to be a person kneeling on one knee before the memorial, their head lowered as the sun set off in the distance across the waters.

"Shinn... what's he doing out here?" Cagalli asked as the hibiki twins walked towards the figure. "Shinn..." Cagalli said as she approached the figure, but it tried to push her away with it's right arm.

"Please go away. Leave this horrible monster alone. I've... i've done so much... bad..." The figure said. Judging by it's voice, there was no way it wasn't Shinn Asuka. As the twins got closer, sad looks creeping onto their faces as they heard him sulk, they could hear what sounded like... crying.

"Shinn stop it. You're... not terrible. What's wrong? Let's talk." Kira said as he put his hand on Shinn's shoulder, the boy then moving away and gaining distance between the twins before he turned and faced them in an aggressive pose, his face red and soaked with the water of his tears.

"YOU DON'T GET IT AT ALL, DO YOU? NEITHER OF YOU? HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY FORGIVE ME FOR WHAT I'VE DONE? FOR WHAT I'VE TRIED TO DO? HOW? I... I KILLED ATHRUN ZALA... THAT LACUS CLYNE GIRL... AND EVEN MEYRIN HAWKE... YET BOTH OF YOU APPROACH ME LIKE THIS AND TRY TO TALK IT OUT? I'M A MONSTER. A HORRIBLE AND EVIL MONSTER AND ALL I DESERVE IS TO BE CAST OUT OF SOCIETY AND PITIED. NOTHING MORE... AND WHOLE LOT LESS." Shinn yelled at the top of his lungs, rage lacing his tone and filling the air. The two twins of ORB were a little shocked and choked after hearing that.

"Shinn! What are you saying! You were the one who stopped Durandal! Not me! You! You're a hero." Kira said.

"I AM NO HERO! I AM A MONSTER IN HUMAN FLESH! I DON'T DESERVE THE LIFE I LIVE CONSIDERING HOW MANY I'VE KILLED." Shinn then ran towards a nearby cliff face that was near the memorial and leaned his head against it, his left arm bent over his head as the sound of agonizing crying could be heard. "How can you casually try to just forgive me like that after I killed Athrun and Lacus? I thought you two were friends with them? Are you just going to rub off the fact that I murdered your friends? Are you going to just shrug your shoulders and ignore the fact that I was one second away from killing both of you? Are you going to forget about the fact that it was I who tried to help Gilbert Durandal enslave humanity using the Destiny Plan? If so... then how? HOW? It's impossible?" Shinn raged. A look of determination took over Cagalli's face as she began to walk forward but was stopped by Kira.

"Cagalli..." He whispered.

"Kira don't stop me. I won't just let me sulk like that and waste his life." Cagalli said as she walked towards Shinn.

"Go away, Attha!" Shinn said, but then found his body flipped around and was looking the Princess of ORB directly in the eyes. "Go away." He said as she gripped his shoulders.

"Stop it! Enough! Listen to yourself! You're asking to be exiled from society! You're asking to be killed! Do you really want that? Do you honestly want that to happen?" Cagalli asked, a tear coming out of her eyes as well.

"Shut up! You don't get it! I've only now realized my mistakes but it's been too late! They're dead and they're not coming back AND IT'S ALL MY FAULT!" Shinn raged.

"I KNOW! I KNOW! Let me tell you something Shinn. I told this to Athrun in the first war: If some takes a life for vengeance and then someones gets revenge by taking his life. How is that kind of twisted thinking every gonna bring us peace? Well? Are you really going to take your own life because you killed someone else, even though you were a soldier, someone who's occupation is to kill people to protect something valuable to them?" Cagalli.

"I don't see what the problem is, Attha, considering I don't have anything left in life, all thanks to YOU!" Shinn screamed as he pushed Cagalli away from himself, the blonde girl preventing herself from falling over as Kira closed in but Cagalli put her left hand behind herself and made a 'don't do it' pose as she looked back at Shinn. Kira, however, decided that it was his turn to talk.

"You can always rebuild, Shinn. We always replant the flowers in a sense. Your life isn't over and done with, nor is it something that cannot be salvaged. You can find somewhere to be happy and call home." Kira said.

"My home rejects me." Shinn said.

"Why? Well maybe when the PLANTs elect a new Supreme Council Chairman..." Kira tried to say.

"I'm not talking about the PLANTs, I'm talking about ORB. ORB is my home." Shinn replied. Both Kira and Cagalli were incredibly stunned by this line. 'And here they go. Mayu, I'm following your last wishes. To me, it seemed as if you wanted me to reconcile with ORB about what happened. I love you, little sister...' Shinn thought.

"What? You must be joking. You hate this nation, and you hate me! Every time i've seen you that's all you ever say!" Cagalli said.

"No! Shut up! Let me explain... Shinn said as he gritted his teeth, tears continuing to flow down his face as he looked at the twins. "I saw my sister... in a dream of sorts, along with Luna and Stella, my two past girlfriends. In that dream my sister said she didn't blame ORB and that I shouldn't hate you... I guess... sometimes people make mistakes. I'm sorry, Princess Cagalli. Although I know you have no reason to forgive me I'm sorry for all I've done to you and to ORB..." Shinn said, his legs failing as he fell somewhat to the ground, only sitting on his knees and legs with his head lowered. "I still just killed Athrun and Lacus... and I nearly killed both of you. I'm such an idiot..." Shinn said. Kira closed in and lowered himself so his face was looking at Shinn's. "So please, just go away... I know I can never earn your forgiveness and because of that I can never return to my true home." Shinn said.

"Shinn... please... stop. You just said that sometimes people make mistakes. Well... you made some mistakes in the last battle. On the other hand, you destroyed the Requiem, destroyed Messiah, and destroyed the Destiny Plan. You saved Humanity, Shinn." Kira said.

"As if I needed to... it's not like you would have been perfectly capable of ending Durandal and his madness if I had not gotten in your way..." Shinn said. Kira was mentally pushed back at this but then put himself back together and explained something.

"Cagalli, remember the time when we were in Libya and..." Kira began to say, turning to his sister.

"OH SHUT UP! WHAT THE HELL DOES LIBYA HAVE TO DO WITH ALL THIS?" Shinn raged. Kira sighed.

"Shinn please calm down and listen." Kira said as he turned to his sister, an expecting look on his face.

"Oh... when we met Andrew for the first time?" She said. Shinn could still be seen pissed off.

"Yes. Remember how we were attacked by Blue Cosmos? Remember how even though I had a gun in my hand I didn't kill that terrorist... how I couldn't pull the trigger just looking at him?" Kira asked.

"Yes..." The blonde said, a confused look in her eyes.

"Well... when me and Mwu met Rau over at the Mendel colony I had to be reminded to take the safety off my gun." He then turned to Shinn. "The point is, Shinn, as much as I am a good gundam pilot, I cannot kill someone with a pistol. I'm not strong enough and I just can't bring myself to do it. If that was me facing Durandal, I would have died. You on the hand, you were strong enough to realize that he needed to be stopped... no matter what... and so you did just that." Kira said. Shinn then looked up at Kira.

"Really? So what you're saying..." Shinn tried to say.

"Is that you were the only one who could kill Durandal out of the two of us. You are the reason that the world is saved, and although you made some mistakes... and even though Athrun was a very close friend and I was closer to Lacus... I... I forgive you Shinn, I really do." Kira said to the black haired boy, who then stood up, the hibiki twins doing the same.

"You... forgive me..?" Shinn asked.

"And so do I... kinda. You saved ORB... you saved your home." Cagalli said to Shinn. "So please, come back home." She said. He turned to her, breathing in as the tears stopped falling from his eyes.

"Alright, fine then. I'll... come back home to ORB... I want to make the world a better place. I want to rebuild what has been destroyed but this time I want to fix the mistakes of the past and make it better." Shinn said. Kira smiled and stuck his hand out.

"I want to too. Let's work together, Shinn. Let's replant the flowers and grow an even better looking garden." Kira said as the red eyed boy shook his hand and smiled, a grin of happiness on his face. A grin that Shinn rarely if ever showed, but this time, there was something different about it, something stronger. The two boys then saw Cagalli place her hand over theirs.

"Yes... let's all do this. I... I think I've just come up with an idea of something both of you could do... something you could be part of..." Cagalli said as the scene shifted.

* * *

The scene then shows Talia Gladys standing on what seems to be a balcony in the Attha mansion. For the time being, or until the PLANTs had got everything under control, Cagalli had offered the Minerva's crew a temporary place to stay until things got settled. The blonde haired women stood leaning across the balcony, her hat still on her head and her white uniform still worn on her body. The captain of the now sunken Minerva then heard footsteps come closer to her and then saw someone stand a couple feet away from her. It was Murrue Ramius.

"Hey..." The brunette said.

"Hello... it's... nice to see you..." Talia said, a little shocked by the fact that Murrue just walked up to her and began talking. Sure it's true that the crews of both vessels did board the same ORB Izumo-class ship after their vessels destroyed each other's engines, however neither Captain had much of a chance to talk to each other.

"I know it's kind of weird for you... that I just walked up to you like this... the Captain of the ship that you fought against just recently and tried to destroy... however... I think it would be nice to have a friendly chat." Murrue smiled, Talia doing the same.

"It's completely understandable. It's just... everything changed. One day you're the Captain of one of Zaft's most powerful vessels, and the next... you don't know what to do next."

"I understand. For me it was the opposite back when the robbery at Heliopolis took place. One day you're an engineer, and a couple minutes later you've been pushed into the Captain's seat of a top secret military vessel." Murrue said.

"Well... what do you think you're going to do next, Captain?" Talia asked, smirking.

"I'm going to offer myself to Princess Cagalli. I hear she has something planned... and if she so desires, I shall serve her. She's probably going to ask me to Captain a new vessel or something like that... this time I'll officially be a part of the ORB military. What are your plans for the future, Captain?" Murrue asked.

"I think I'm done with the military, at least as a soldier on the battlefield. I have a son at home right now in the PLANTs. I'm thankful that the PLANT he was in wasn't hit by the Requiem, but I think it's time he was allowed to spend some time with his mother... to not have to worry if his one parent is going to die..." Talia said.

"Perfectly understandable. If you've managed to command a vessel as well as you have then I know you'll treat your kid well, Captain Gladys."

"Thank you, Captain Ramius." Talia replied.

* * *

Several days had passed since then. A treaty was forged between the remnants of the Earth Alliance government, the government of ORB, and the government of the PLANTs. The power of the PLANT Supreme Council Chairman had been restricted in order to prevent another Patrick Zala or Gilbert Durandal from coming to power and doing something radical to try to force major changes on the world. All three nations were now forced to limit their military size to some extent although the Alliance and Zaft had got the brunt end of it... ORB never really surpassing the size it was limited to in the first place. Yzak Joule was now placed on the Supreme Council as a moderator who would keep the Council in check, much like a guard dog, and Talia Gladys now held an important seat on the Supreme Council as the new Minister of National Defence. A new Chairman was elected, and this man was an older man who seemed moderate, and for the most part, he didn't seem to have any radical ambition.

Cagalli had started to rebuild ORB and her people were very pleased with her progress and were happy to see their mighty Princess back in charge. Unlike before the Council of Ministers agreed with the Princess and thought it wise to listen to her and follow her. One very important aspect of the treaty forged between the nations of the world was that it recognized the Archangel crew as being a group that did what they could in order to ensure peace and minimize bloodshed. The Minerva was also recognized in the same way as a vessel that desired peace and justice, but was officially part of a military most of the time. Because of this, both of the vessels were lifted off of the Lunar surface and brought to the nearest city where they were repaired and upgraded to some extent, their paint jobs being changed to have a primary color of black and a secondary color of blue, matching the colors of the unit they would be a part of.

Due to this recognition of honor and bravery, a new group was made that although it belonged to ORB itself, it's sole purpose of it's existence was to prevent another war from taking place, and in addition to this was fully backed by the Minister of Nation Defence for the PLANTs Talia Gladys. This group was called PEACE, which stood for **P**rotection of **E**arth **A**utonomous **C**ombat **E**ntity and it consisted of the Archangel commanded by Captain Murrue Ramius and the Minerva commanded by Captain Arthur Trine. Kira Yamato, hero of the First Bloody Valentine War with his ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom as well as Shinn Asuka, hero of the Second Bloody Valentine War and his ZGMF-X42S Destiny were now recognized as the two greatest mobile suit pilots to have ever lived and were the two main pilots of the PEACE along with several other aces from either the Earth Alliance, the Zaft, or ORB military. PEACE, tasked with preventing another conflict, was first assigned to space a couple days after both of it's vessels were repaired and had landed on Earth in ORB territory.

* * *

"I stand before the entire world right now to usher into existence a new group designed to prevent another war from taking place." The Princess of ORB said as she stood on a podium on a dock in an ORB port, right in between vessels as they sat in the water nearby, waiting to launch, a large crowd in front of her and several news crews capturing her beautiful and elegant image. Behind her were several important people sitting in chairs including Kira, Shinn, Murrue, and Arthur, their modified ORB uniforms now black where there was once white standing out and being noticed by all. The Strike Freedom and Destiny gundams, which were now fully repaired, were standing side by side behind the Princess with their phase shift on, seeming to glow in the sunlight in the early morning.

"Peace is something we all desire. It gives us humans freedom from stress, war, and oppression. Although at the same time, I have recognized that in order to maintain justice and peace, the world must have a watchful eye capable of detecting threats and neutralizing them. The last war was brutal and bloody, and the war before that an even greater conflict. I do not wish to see another war break out during the rest of my time on Earth... nay... I wish to never see it break out again. That is why we have decided to take our brightest and best, and assign them to be the watchful eye designed for neutralizing threats to our world. That is what PEACE is. However, I am only a politician. Yes I have designed and commissioned PEACE, however I find it exponentially more suitable to allow two very special of this group to speak about what they think PEACE is." Cagalli said as she moved off of the podium, the crowd cheering at the Princess of ORB as her brown haired sibling, Kira, took the stage.

"I think that it's a good thing that we have tried to do this. I started piloting a mobile suit when I was sixteen... and although I didn't like what I was doing... I did because it was for a cause I believed in... at the time. In the Second War my reasoning was no different. I wanted to end the conflict... and I wanted to see the bloodshed brought to a halt. However, I was trying to douse the flames after they had been ignited into one massive inferno. What I should have done, and what my friends aboard the Archangel should have done was try to douse the embers before they could ignite. That is what PEACE is all about, simple as that. Thank you." Kira said as he walked off of the podium, Shinn then taking the stage as the crowd cheered for both of them.

"Everything that my friend Kira has just said was indeed true. We exist to stop the conflict before it becomes a war. That is our duty. However, I must state a disclaimer. We are humans, and humans make mistakes. We will do our best to stop any kind of rebel group, terrorist organization, you name it, from starting another war. That is our job, and that is the initiative of PEACE. However, I ask you right now, to not be angry with us should we fail and a few people die. I'm not saying we will fail, but since all humans make mistakes, it's certainly a possibility that it may one day happen. Should that happen, I ask you, the people of the world, to not blame us, to not hate us, but to help us and understand that we did the best we could with what we could, and that we did things the way we did because that's what we thought was right. That is all." Shinn said as the crowd cheered for him, the red eyed coordinator looking at the Princess of ORB and winking, a slight smile appearing on Cagalli's face. Shinn had just told the world not to do what he did after his family died and he blamed the Atthas. He had told them to understand human nature, and to realize that mistakes happen and everyone acts on what they think is right. A couple minutes later the Princess of ORB and the crowd waved the two ships goodbye as they began to take off.

"Archangel, taking off!" Murrue ordered as the massive vessel began to move forward, the ship lifting itself out of the water and ascending. At the same time the Minerva did the same.

"Engines to maximum. The Minerva is launching!" Arthur announced as the black and blue vessel then began to take off next to the Archangel, it's wings extending as the two vessels began to head into space, Cagalli saluting them as they did.

* * *

The former Captain of the Minerva, Talia Gladys walked into her house, her purple and black Supreme Council uniform looking to match her style very well as she heard running.

"MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY!" The young boy said as he ran towards his mother, the women leaning down to hug him as he ran into her arms. "Guess what I did at school today?"

"What? What did you do?" She asked kindly as she hugged her child.

"You'll never guess! You'll have to play a game of chex... chez... chess with me first!" He said.

"Alright then. Mommy will play a game of chess with you if you want!" Talia said as she picked up her son, the boy hugging his mom's head.

"I missed mommy while she was fighting..."

"It's okay... mommy's not going to be fighting again. Mommy's going to stay with you." She said as she held her son, the child embracing her more.

* * *

The camera now cuts to show what appears to be the Strike Freedom on the Archangel's launch catapult and the Destiny on the Minerva's.

"Kira Yamato, Freedom, taking off!" Kira announced as he launched from the Archangel and activated his phase shift.

"Shinn Asuka, Destiny, launching!" Shinn said as he also took off and activated his phase shift, the camera then freezing as the Destiny flew through the air, the Strike Freedom being seen a little bit beside and behind it and the Archangel and Minerva in the background.

-Fin-

Author's Note: I had fun writing this as a little bit of a break project from Humanity's Fate, of which Phase 31 should be coming out soon with the next section of the story.

In case you're wondering, I'm going to say right now I DON'T have any plans for a sequel for this. For those of you who are reading Humanity's Fate, you shall be the ones to help me decide my next project. I have a couple ideas in my head that I think I could work with, some of them I haven't written down anywhere, not even on my profile.


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